After Ten Years
by Marla1
Summary: Naomi agrees to go on a ten year deep space journey aboard the USS Odyssey. She quickly realizes that it will be an interesting journey. Ten years pass and they come back in time for the Voyager reunion, come see what has happened during those ten years..
1. Chapter 1

Hey all, please enjoy my new Star Trek Voyager fanfic, I love the show and am addicted and my muse hit with inspiration for a Voyager FF. Please enjoy reading and please let me know what you think of it by reviewing or sending me an email.

I would like to thank my beta Mavfan for all of her input and help with this story, YOU'RE AMAZING, thank you so much!!!!!!!!! Her stories are amazing, read them if you have time on to the story!!!!!!!

"WE ARE DOWN!!." Faulk yelled as he activated the shipwide communication system (comm) as they set down in the Star Fleet Gamma headquarters, a hidden base near Starfleet command.

Everyone erupted in a resounding celebration, Faulk cleared his breath to get everyone attention, "Now that we are here, pull out that bottle of bubbly I have placed in every room and celebrate. We have achieved something that has NEVER been done since the impromptu voyage to the Delta quadrant by Star Trek Voyager BUT WE MADE IT LONGER. We have made history, let us celebrate and be merry for we shall pay in the morning. Since Starfleet has started downloading our database lets make sure your final reports are in. I wanted to say I am proud of this team and lets celebrate, TO OUR ODYSSEY!"

Unlike other Starfleet Captains who would have assigned the task of putting champagne in every room to an underling, Captain Faulk felt it an honor to do it himself. If someone was under age or just didn't like champagne he put various bottles of bubbly juices in those rooms. He knew this crew and their tastes that is what happens when you have been together for ten years.

Everyone around the ship yelled, "TO ODYSSEY"

He leaned down and pressed the counsel on his chair and stood up from his chair pulling out the bottle of champagne and sparkling apple cider, "Lets drink and be merry."

Naomi shrieked as Icheb wrapped his arms around her and spun her around kissing her soundly.

As Commander Shonan Barbab vacated her chair to hug her husband, Head of security Mannif Kelsion, Alexis (Lexie) skipped over and sat down in the recently vacated chair with a huge smile on her face.

She turned to the Captain and held out her glass, "May I have some bubbly please Captain?" she said holding down her glass.

He smiled at her, "Why of course my assistant." He popped open the sparkling cider with much pomp and circumstance and poured her a glass then poured himself a glass, he handed the bottle to Marie who walked by.

Counselor Marie Johnson grabbed the bottle and smiled at the exchange between the two. She knew Faulk before the accident and had been worried about him. But seeing him and Lexie she just knew that Faulk was fine.

Lexie turned and faced the view screen sipping on her bubbly. Faulk turned and looked at the viewscreen, "Well girly we are back, what do you think of your first view of earth?"

"Its pretty, exactly like mommy told me it was. So captain are you coming with us tonight?"

He turned to Lexie, she was an extraordinary little girl. This crew and this little girl helped to renew the spark in his life that left when his wife died. The entire crew treated Lexie like their niece or granddaughter, but Faulk was her god father and therefore had a special bond with her. Her smile would make his bad days go away, and her youthful enthusiasm made his heart leap.

"I will be coming by the Voyager reunion later after I see the Admirals and give a brief report. And then we shall dance."

She smiled at him and drank her juice, both of them staring out the window at the view of San Francisco. After a few minutes Captain Faulk turned and smiled at Naomi and Icheb. Naomi was standing in front of Icheb with his arms wrapped around her talking lively with him.

"How is the bubbly honey?" Naomi asked Lexie.

She turned around and smiled at her parents, "Mommy it is really good, very bubbly."

"That's good love, now do you want to go and see the doc right now? He said that he really wanted to see you today…"

A huge smile appeared on her face, "YES" she put down her glass and skipped up to her mother, "I really really want to see Doc we have our Flotter to finish."

Naomi smiled at her, "Well go and see him honey, and remember your gift for him. You have to be back in the room by two, Doc knows that. Now you two go and have fun with Flotter."

She smiled and started to run off the bridge but then stopped and turned around to the Captain, "Permission to leave the bridge sir?"

He smiled and nodded his head to her, she ran out of the bridge with a huge smile on her face, they had one more adventure to finish. Doctor Richardson, aka Doc, was her Flotter buddy. After an embarrassing incident in the past, which made Naomi uncomfortable around Flotter, she asked around if anyone liked Flotter and wanted to go through the adventures with Lexie. Doc volunteered and was having just as much fun as Lexie was, and he was, of course, able to relentlessly tease Naomi and Icheb about their rendezvous in the holodeck and the Flotter characters. Also he was writing children's holostories and wanted to see a child's perspective when using the stories. Doc and Lexie had a lot of fun doing it, and this was their last adventure before they started on the Doc's stories.

Naomi turned in Icheb's arms and stared at him, "So now that we have right now to ourselves whatever shall we do with it?"

Icheb gave her a seductive smile and captured her lips with a tender kiss.

"PDA PDA PDA PDA" Lucas screamed as he walked over to Naomi and Icheb kissing.

A very pregnant Miral rolled her eyes and walked up to her husband, she tapped him on the shoulder "Ill show you PDA Mr." and pulled him into a very raunchy kiss.

"Oh momma." He said when she broke the kiss, he turned to Naomi and Icheb who were watching them laughing, "Now that is PDA baby."

Naomi rolled her eyes, "Lucas you two are an extreme example of PDA, having sex in the mess hall, now that is PDA.'

Miral smiled at Naomi, her mind going back to that day, then grabbed Lucas's hand and turned to Faulk, "I am going to steal my husband away now, you guys have fun doing what you are going to do."

"Remember no glove no love." Icheb yelled as they walked out, "oh wait too late for that"

Miral stuck her tongue out at him, "whatever now its you two who must be careful, I'm the one who is already knocked up so I have nothing to…" she let out a scream giggle as she was pulled into the elevator by Lucas unable to finish her sentence.

"Those two are going to be very interesting parents." Faulk said raising his glass to Naomi and Icheb, they raised theirs too, Naomi clinking her glass with Icheb's, "To our family" Faulk raised his glass.

"Here, here" people on the bridge cheered to that one, Faulk stood up on his chair and stared at his bridge commanders, "EVERYONE, to my family whom have made me laugh and cry over these 10 years. To those who are leaving I love you and you will always have a home here, and for those of you who are staying WE shall party more and more!"

"Here, here" Shonan Barbab toasted with the Captain hugging him, he hugged her back.

He then walked around the bridge to each crewmember hugged and toasted each of them. He then left the bridge with a bottle of apple cider and did the same to every crewmember on the ship, they were all his family and he wanted to speak with each of them.

_XOXOXOXOXOXOXO_

Naomi and Icheb walked into the mess hall hand in hand. "Two Nelix-4's, hot." Naomi requested then 2 bowls of Hot Talaxian Spice soup appeared in the replicator, Icheb grabbed the bowls and found a table.

Naomi grabbed silverware, and two Talaxian iced teas then sat down next to Icheb. He choose their favorite table at the back of the mess hall by the window.

"Oh man this will be interesting to go to the reunion…" Naomi sighed and took a bite of her soup.

Icheb smiled knowing the look that crossed her face, "Oh yea, I hope your father wont kill me. I mean I have been shamelessly corrupting his only daughter year after year…"

Naomi gave him an affronted look, "Now, now dear Icheb 'tis I who have corrupted you."

They both erupted in laughter, this was an ongoing joke between them and went back to talking about the reunion and finishing their bowls of soup.

Icheb suddenly looked over to Naomi, "Want to go for a walk, I have some holodeck time and I think the Andes are calling our names?" her face lit up and she was up before he could finish his sentence

They took the long route to the holodeck enjoying each others company and comfort. Icheb wrapped his arm around Naomi's waist and she wrapped her arm around his hip, leaning her head on his shoulder.

"Computer, begin program Andes fall." Icheb said, "Passkey Naomi is beautiful".

Naomi smiled at him. Half way through the trip a group of engineers, Miral leading the party, wrote a program that allowed the computer not only use voice key passes, but to also locate members of the crew using their voices. It was a quick and ingenious way of locating people, so that if they left their com badge off they could still be located. It had been critical at times on their trip, and had saved many lives.

The computer responded, "Program is now running Icheb."

They walked into the now forested, hilly area. It was a tad on the cold side causing Naomi move closer to Icheb.

"So honey how are those jitters?" Icheb asked, not knowing if they had grown exponentially over the day.

"Oh they are still there, and growing more." She stopped suddenly, "I just…"

Icheb turned so that he was facing Naomi and wrapped his arms around her, "I know I have the same thing but it will be great to see everyone."

She leaned her head on his chest and mumbled something in agreement with him. Some jitters started slowly leaving as she looked up into his eyes.

_XOXOXOXOXOXOXO_

Miral dragged Lucas to Holodeck 4 and smiled as it changed from the standard holodeck grid to a pine alps scene.

"So you said you thought about it…" Lucas stopped, sat down on a large boulder and pulled her on to his lap.

She smiled and started, "So that opportunity is amazing and just so awesome." Lucas tried not to hide his disappointment with how the conversation started, "Perk up cowboy and listen." She gave him a quick kiss and continued, "But this ship is our home, my job is great and…"

"But Miral it's your dream to command a starship, we love each other we WILL make it work no matter what…"

"BOY I told you hush up, let me finish. I have thought about this all night so let me say it or else…" she smiled at him, her evil smile that told him to keep it shut, "I don't want to give up our life on this ship, I want little Xavier…" She put her hand on her ever expanding stomach, "to grow up with his family. Plus who says I cannot eventually become commander or captain. Plus Captain said that I am next in line to advance in rank, so I'll be able to take over, Captain has to retire eventually..."

He smiled but continued, "But…"

She rolled her eyes and put her hands over his mouth, "Now shut up mister, I want OUR life here on this damn ship, we can be together and not have the chance of being split up. Plus Xavier needs us both. I don't want him to grow up without a dad, or without me. Plus Lucas, officers are leaving to lead their own ships so I will get my chance to lead, I have proven myself to Faulk or so I have been hinted at many times. So this is the end of this conversation, dear, now please kiss me."

_XOXOXOXOXOXOXO_

"Mommy what jewelry should I wear?" Lexie came into her parents room in her shimmery pink dress after finishing Flotter with the doc five hours later.

"Well sweetie, your Daddy told me to tell you, not to put on any jewelry. So, we should wait to see what he has in store for us."

Lexie smiled and rolled on the balls of her feet with excitement while she watched her mother finish getting dressed. Naomi turned around and smiled at Lexie, "Alright you go first and see what your daddy has planned, I am going to finish my hair."

Lexie started out the door but then stopped and gave her mother a look, Naomi stopped and looked at her, "Mommy…" she looked apprehensively at her mother. Naomi walked over and picked up Lexie sitting down with her on the bed.

Lexie had her arms wrapped around her mother, "What's wrong honey?"

"I'm just… I don't…." she sighed getting frustrated at herself, finally she continued, "I think I assimilated butterflies like daddy did… and I don't know…" she sighed, "will they go away?"

Naomi smiled and hugged her tighter, "They will eventually… I hope. Honey guess what, mommy has butterflies too."

Lexie looked up at her mother, "really?"

Naomi smiled and laughed, "Well of course I do, I want to see everyone but I'm nervous about it too I haven't seen them in ten years. Your daddy is nervous too." Lexie looked even more surprised, "But we are so excited to see everyone and it will be fun, I promise honey" reassured a little more Lexie got off of Naomi's lap and stood in front of her, "now lets not let those butterflies get in our way, you go out and see your daddy I want finish my hair."

Lexie nodded and smiled as she walked out of her parents room.

Icheb watched Lexie walk out of the bedroom and smiled, "My, my Miss Lexie you look absolutely beautiful." He got up and scooped her into his arms..

"Why thank you daddy." She smiled at him and he reached behind him and grabbed the pink velvet box off of the table and showed it to her.

It was a set of pink amethyst jewelry in a white gold setting; it was complete with earrings, necklace, bracelet and ring, "For my beautiful daughter on her fifth birthday… well almost your fifth birthday." Lexie smiled and was about to say something when Icheb continued, "I thought that since tonight was a special night, you would want to wear them." He handed her the box.

"Daddy." Was all she said as she enveloped him in a hug.

Naomi stood by the door watching Lexie and Icheb, her heart melted in a million pieces when Lexie hugged Icheb. Icheb hugged her back with a huge smile on his face. She wiped a tear that formed and finished putting on her red heels.

Icheb put Lexie down and she ran over to the couch to put on her jewelry. She was stubborn and didn't want help putting on jewelry, she could do it herself. And she always made sure to tell them precisely that. Even if she had issues with it she still wanted to put it on herself. He turned around and stopped as he caught a glimpse of Naomi in a red halter top dress.

She walked over to Icheb trying to keep the sweet innocent smile on her face, she wrapped her arms around his neck and gave him a very chaste kiss. He tried to pull her in to deepen the kiss, she held him back, he looked dejected "You're so cute when you pout honey."

He pulled her against him, "And you're such a tease." He captured her in a very deep kiss.

Lexie stared over at her parents and sighed, "DAD, MOM you two are so embarrassing." She stood up and walked into the bathroom to put on her earrings and necklace on.

Naomi broke the kiss and both of them laughed. She stared over Icheb's shoulder at her daughter who sauntered off to the bathroom to finish putting on her jewelry and smiled.

Sending shivers up and down her spine Icheb whispered in Naomi's ear, "So I have a present for you too..."

"And what might that be." She looked up at him, he reluctantly let go of her and grabbed the small red box on the table.

He opened the box for her, she looked at the ruby heart shaped necklace, Icheb continued, "I found it and I knew that it would match your wedding ring and of course the red matches this new sexy slinky dress.", tears formed in her eyes, he smiled at Naomi as he put the necklace around her neck.

"Mister. you are something else." She wrapped her arms around him, pulling him into a hug.

He smiled contently, not wanting to ever let her go.

The doorbell chimed, Lexie yelled from the bathroom, "I'll get it, I want to get it…" she came running out of the bathroom and ran to the door, "Come in." she said commanding the door to open.

Lucas and Miral stood at the door, Miral stepped in, "Hello Lexie, don't you look just beautiful tonight."

Lexie looked at Miral in her blue strapless dress and smiled, "Why thank you. You look very pretty too. How is cousin doing?" she asked referring to the baby.

Lexie and Miral walked over to the table and sat down, Lucas followed into the room and stood behind Miral rubbing her shoulders.

'Oh Xavier is doing quite fine, a little hyper but fine. How is that blanket going?" Miral asked about the blanket that Lexie promised to make her son when she found out that Miral was pregnant.

"It's going good, I got all of the fabric washed and the cuts for the ties made, I am going to start the tying soon. It is very cute, but I want to surprise you when I am done, so I'm not going to show it to you tonight." She smiled at Miral.

"Yea girl its looking good." Naomi added turning around in Icheb's arms so that she faced her two best friends.

"Oh I'm so excited I cannot wait. I cannot wait until this little man is out in the world. But I am so excited for tonight, to get to see our family and well our even bigger family is going to be fun. Oh I wonder what's happened to everyone."

Naomi smiled a sad smile, "Yea I am excited to see my mom and dad and of course all of Voyager. But one person will be missing, man I am going to miss Grandpa Wildman." Icheb pulled her closer to him comforting her. "But he would be happy with what I have done with my life…"

"And he is looking down at you and us and smiling." Lexie said leaning down and strapping her sandals.

All four of the adults smiled and their hearts melted at the sight of the little girl, "Yes, yes he his my Lexie, yes he is."

"So how much partying are we doing tonight?" Lucas asked trying to change to a happy subject.

"Before or after we are killed by our wives parents." Icheb asked.

Naomi and Miral laughed, Lucas added, "Well both dude DUH."

Naomi grabbed her purse and turned to them, "alright crew lets go." Lexie jumped up and grabbed her mother's hand, Icheb reached over and grabbed Naomi's other hand.

Lucas laughed at his best friend and her family, "So milady shall we follow themst to the ballist?"

Miral shook her head at him and grabbed his hand as she walked towards the door.

_XOXOXOXOXOXOXO_

"Alright, ready for transport?" Lieutenant Natalya Ayala, daughter of Voyager's Ayala, asked the five of them.

Lexie smiled, "Aye, aye."

She tipped her hands to her, "Have a fun time at the reunion. Ill see you all there, I cant wait to see my dad!" She didn't even have to think about the command sequence, she knew it by heart after being the head of the transporter department for five years.

They dematerialized and rematerialized on a platform at the end of a hallway, Naomi pulled out her Voyager pass card and started down the hall. They were transported to a location near Voyager. They would then be transported from that location to Voyager after their ID's were verified. After they visited the ship, they would then have their ID's checked again and transported to the hall where the reunion party was being held Due to the fascination of the Voyager story, many people tried to get in to the reunion that were not invited. Starfleet finally came up with a system that would work, for the most part.

Naomi smiled noticing that the crewman who took her families ID cards was new to the Reunion crew and didn't recognize Naomi on sight, but since she hadn't been to the reunion in many years not a lot of people would, "These hooligans are with me."

"Have fun at the reunion." He handed her back the card and motioned for her to move on.

Miral handed him her and Lucas's ID cards, "And this strange man is with me." She said as they walked past the man, Lucas grabbed the cards as he handed them back.

"Hey guy," Naomi said as she turned to face the front of the transporter, "Smile a little, it will make the night go by a lot faster I guarantee."

"Ill try," he started the code, "Thanks" he smiled at her and pushed the last sequence.

The familiar sight of Voyager's transporter room welcomed Naomi, Icheb and Miral.

"So…" Lexie said, smiling at her mother who was looking at the room.

"Alright, so the plan is to show miss Lexie and Mr. Lucas around Voyager and then head to the room and meet up with everyone." Naomi said as they walked out of the transporter room around Voyagers familiar halls.

As they toured the ship which had been her home for the first five years of her life, Naomi thought back to the day Voyager returned to Earth.

"Voyager returns home," flashed over the news nets and billboards around the Federation.

"Mommy where are we meeting Daddy?" Naomi looked at Samantha who was looking around trying to find her husband. They were in a huge crowd of people and both were getting very frustrated, very quickly.

"We are going to get through these people and then…" she started to say but was interrupted.

"SAM, NAOMI OVER HERE!" Greskrendtregk (Gresk) yelled across the room waving his arms.

"DADDY!" Naomi yelled, she started running towards him. People in the crowd immediately moved out of the way as she started towards him.

Sam was hot on her tail, smiling at her husband the entire time, "Honey!" She yelled.

She wiped tears away from her eyes as she and her daughter hugged her father. Gresk reached out with one arm and lifted his daughter in a hug, and wrapped the other arm around his wife. Naomi wrapped her arms around his neck and rested her head on his shoulder, she drew in his scent, cologne and peppermint. Naomi thought to herself as tears fell down her cheeks 'I am never, ever going to forget this, my dad.'

Naomi was brought out of her thoughts as they walked into Sam and Naomi's former quarters, "So this is where your grandma and I lived when we were on Voyager." Naomi showed Lexie around the quarters, whom ever was living there currently, had a daughter living in her old bedroom.

"Mom, she has a Flotter doll, AWESOME!" Lexie commented as they walked out of the room.

The crewmen and women of Voyager let everyone go in and show their families the rooms as long as things were not taken. It was a nice gesture for Voyager's returnees to see where they lived and show their families.

"Daddy can you show me where the Borg stuff was?" Lexie asked Icheb, as she grabbed both Naomi and Icheb's hands and they all headed off in that direction.

_XOXOXOXOXOXOXO_

Samantha immediately turned around and looked around, Gresk stopped walking and looked at his wife, "Honey?"

"I could have sworn I just heard Naomi…"

Gresk turned with his wife, "Well maybe she is back, but honey…" he pulled Samantha into his arms trying to distract her, "honey don't get your hopes up, it could be another year. We don't know when it will be exactly."

Samantha relaxed in his arms sighing, "Man, oh man, I miss that girl."

He hugged his wife close to him, "Yea me too, but what an opportunity for her, I wonder if her and Lucas ever started something."

Sam looked up at him, "Naw, they are too much best friends', maybe she met some cute Lieutenant and fell madly in love."

"So, let's go to the ballroom and mingle." With that they walked towards the transporter room.

_XOXOXOXOXOXOXO_

"Mommy…" Lexie looked up at her mother making sure she had her attention, "would we be able to stop by the bathroom? I really gotta go." Naomi smiled and headed down a corridor towards a bathroom.

Miral popped into this conversation, "Yea Mommy, I gotta go too." She smiled at Naomi who turned around and laughed at her.

"Alright crew, pit stop time," she turned around another corner.

Samantha and Gresk looked at a group of five people in front of them, Sam wondered who they were, but they turned the corner before she could inquire. They walked into the transporter room and transported to the ballroom.

"Cheers!" Everyone turned when the transporter deposited Sam and Gresk into the room, the computer automatically announced, "Samantha and Gresk Wildman." He tipped his glass in their direction, "Here, here" Samantha yelled grabbing a drink from the table where they were set out.

_XOXOXOXOXOXOXO_

"Alright off to the ballroom we go." Naomi said, the butterflies in her stomach growing more intense as they stepped on the platform.

Icheb wrapped his arms around her, Lexie came and stood in front of them and grabbed on to Naomi's free hand, she squeezed it back in reassurance.

Miral leaned her head on Lucas's shoulder. The transporter operator said, "Alright, so you'll be announced as you arrive, drinks and food are to your immediate left. Have a great time."

"Thanks," Naomi said as they were transported.

All of a sudden three names blared over the intercom system that they did not expect,

"Naomi, Icheb, and Alexis Wildman." The computer then announced, "Lucas and Miral Fennings."

Everyone in the ballroom stared in shocked silence at the newcomers on the platform.

_XOXOXOXOXOXOXO_

Have a great holiday season, thanks for reading!!! More to come, second chapter is getting near done, sneak peak Naomi and Icheb first meeting on the Odyssey and Lucas and Miral's first encounter; you'll have to wait till chapter two comes out!!!!


	2. Voyager Trio meets up

Hey guys

So I am in college and I am busy, sorry, but I LOVE THIS STORY and I'm really excited and I love this. Please let me know what you think by reviewing or sending me an email. And I want to thank my amazing beta Mavfan, she rocks and is amazing, thank you so much!!!

Enjoy, and on to the next chapter of After Ten Years…

All eyes were staring at the transportation platform as they rematerialized, the five of them were shocked to see everyone staring at them in silence.

"Hey everyone." Naomi and Miral said together, they both looked at each other and laughed, Naomi said, "I guess great minds think alike"

"Or insane ones" Miral added.

Janeway walked up to the platform, which was on a raised marble staircase landing, "I wanted to wait to see if they would come tonight before saying to say that the Odyssey has returned."

Sam stood there staring at her daughter, she thought to herself as she tried to move her feet, 'She's all grown up, and is that my grandbaby?' She stared at Lexie and tears formed in her eyes, then she looked behind Naomi and saw Icheb with his arm wrapped around Naomi and holding on to Lexie's hand, 'She married him, oh my, my baby is married…' she finally convinced her feet to move and started moving through the crowd.

"Harry move, Tom come on that is your daughter up there too." she said as she stormed towards the new wcomers on the platform. Her husband, Seven, Chakotay, Tom and B'Elanna all following in her wake. Naomi picked up Lexie and started down the stairs Icheb's hand intertwined with her other hand, Miral and Lucas were right on their heels.

The scent of that familiar cologne and peppermint filled Naomi's senses as she was surrounded by her family

XOXOXOX

"Naw you don't look a thing like me…" Gresk said to Lexie who was happily sitting on his lap.

"YES I do Grandpa, I have your and great grandpa's eyes, Mommy said that it was a special thing to have." Lexie tried to argue her point, not seeing that he was joking with her.

He laughed, "Now miss Lexie, how can I joke around when you make such flattering statements." He pulled her close to him in a huge bear hug.

Icheb smiled as he watched his daughter and father-in-law joke around. He smiled at them, she looked over and saw him and smiled.

'I love you' he mouthed to her.

"I love you too Daddy." Lexie said, subtlety was not something that Lexie practiced.

Gresk turned the chair so he was facing his son in law, Lexie turned in his lap so she could face her dad too, "Icheb come on over here I know that the ladies will be a while."

Icheb smiled and sat down next to Gresk, "Yea Naomi was so excited to get to see her mother, I knew that they would be over there talking for a while, especially since well… you know..."

"Yea I know, Sam felt the same way. What's funny is that we saw the five of you guys on Voyager before we came over here. Oh man, Sam was right, she is going to make sure to remind me of that every time this is brought up." He rolled his eyes.

Chakotay walked over to Icheb, Lexie and Gresk, "Hey gentlemen and a lady of course, why don't you guys come over and join us, I think that Miral was just going to tell some embarrassing stories about Naomi and Icheb and as his father-in-law I thought you would just love to hear these."

Gresk smiled, "Well now, that would be a lot of fun." He securely held on to Lexie and stood up, she giggled and wrapped her arms around his neck, "You want to go over there too Miss Lexie?"

"Yea, gramps." She smiled at him.

XOXOXO

"NO MIRAL don't, please…" Naomi tried to fruitlessly get her to shut up, she was being held back by Lucas, not an easy job.

"Aht, aht Naomi now we must tell these stories our PUBLIC WANTS TO hear them. Wait till I tell them about your first date." Naomi glared at Lucas who was tickling her so that Miral could tell the story.

"Jerk, stop TICKLING ME!" Naomi struggled to get out of his reach, Lucas decided to stop tickling her but grabbed a hold of her hands.

Icheb sat down next to Naomi, "They will tell it anyway sweetie, so we might as well let them do it now so that they don't…" he looked at Lucas directly, "embellish too much."

Naomi reached over and slapped Lucas hard, Miral laughed, "Now where was I, ok so to update Gresk" she said as he took a seat with Lexie in front of her, "I am going to tell you guys how they meet."

A large group of Voyager returnees sat down and listened to the story, very interested in hearing about Voyagers youngest crew members lives.

Naomi rushed down the hall of the Odyssey with the large case of imaging equipment. She had just been assigned to this ship a day before and she spent the entire night planning out her Astrometics lab. She was rushing to get it set up while they were still in space port. They needed to set up everything and use energy from the space station while they could. This meant rushing through the halls to get the more specialized equipment aboard.

She had been approached by Captain Faulk for the long term deep space mission to be director of the experimental Astrometics lab on board the Odyssey. They needed someone who was good at Astrometics of not just the Alpha quadrant but also the Delta, and Beta quadrants. Naomi and her best friend Lucas were the experts on both the Delta and Beta quadrants. They were asked to design the lab and man it. They were given free rein on what they wanted and how things would work. Faulk just wanted a working and, more specifically, an innovative and very different lab. Naomi couldn't pass up this opportunity, though taking the assignment meant that she would be on this ship for ten years because they were doing a deep space analysis and exploration of the area near the Delta and Beta quadrants.

Lucas ran to catch up with Naomi, "Damn girl, don't walk so fast, I cant keep up. I am dragging the computer counsel console."

"Whiney baby come on." Naomi laughed at him and continued with her brisk pace. "Left and… a right" she said turning those directions. "And we are here." She said stopped in front of the doors to her new lab.

"Hey watch out, you almost ran over my toes." A crewman yelled at Lucas, who was not watching as his antigravity cart with its large computer console almost bowled her over.

Lucas stopped and looked back at the women had yelled at him. He watched turn to rush off, "My, my, there sure are some fine ladies here."

Naomi turned around and slapped him, "Lucas, you are such a prat, and you just saw the back of her, what if her face is ugly."

Miral turned around hearing that, "Excuse me, how dare you…" she noticed that it was Naomi and smiled, "Oh my gosh, NAOMI."

Naomi shoved the box she was carrying into Lucas's hands and ran over to Miral hugging her, "What are you doing here Miral?"

"I should ask you the same Naomi. Wait, you're heading up Astro aren't ya, I know Faulk would get someone good?"

"Yep, Chief of Astrometics, but I cannot believe that you are here." She hugged her friend again very happy that Miral was there. "YES I don't have to spend ten years with dork face." Naomi said referring to Lucas. "Silly me, Miral this is Lucas. Don't mind him, he is an ass sometimes" she pursed her lips at his loud scoff, "well a good majority of the time." She laughed as Lucas lightly slapped her.

Miral rolled her eyes, "Hello Lucas, I'm glad that you think that I have a nice ass… but come on, you don't just say crap like that out loud. Kkeep it in your head, and then people won't think you're as big of a jerk, 'kay? Now Naomi," she grabbed Naomi's hand, "the boy can take care of this stuff right? Because there is someone you should see, you'll be excited I guarantee you."

Naomi was torn, Lucas spoke up, "Go Naomi I can take care of this stuff, and set it up, we have floor plans that we spent all night working on. You go spend some time with your friend."

Miral smiled at Lucas, "Wow, I'm shocked Lucas, you might just be a decent guy after all, now come on Naomi lets go."

Naomi smiled at her then turned to Lucas, "Please get everything to the lab and I'll be back and help you set it up.," She turned to start off with Miral, but then turned back to him with a smile on her face, an innocent smile that Lucas knew to be cautious of, "And I love you dearly but Lucas you hurt that computer console and I will hurt you so bad." She tipped him a smile and walked down the hall with Miral.

"Don't worry I wont hurt your baby, I'm smarter than that!"

Naomi laughed and walked off with Miral, arms intertwined, "So Miss Miral, what the hell are you doing here?"

"I am the chief of operations, fourth in command, and really excited that my friend is here." She put her head on Naomi's shoulder.

Her curiosity got the best of her and during their mingling, she finally asked, "So who is here that you are taking me to..."

"All heads of departments come to the bridge immediately." Faulk's voice blared over the intercom.

"Well I guess we will see him there." Miral exclaimed as they headed up towards the bridge, Naomi smiled at Miral's enthusiasm.

XOXOXOXOXOXO

"So everyone…" Faulk started but the two ladies walked in, "Nice of you to join us, please come in and we were just starting introductions so you guys are my lucky volunteers to go first." Faulk motioned for them to start.

"Miral Pairs, Chief of Operations, Captain what else did you want to know…"

"Well of course your favorite color and food and what your dog's name is…" he said with a straight face, the cracked a smile and laughed.

Naomi shouldn't have been as shocked as she was, the captain told her it was an unorthodox ship, but she was very surprised at how the Captain was acting, laughing and joking.

He continued, "But for real now, just why you want to be on this mission, what pulled you here?" he said emphasizing the last word.

Miral smiled, "Well I have been on this ship with Captain for a year now, and when this mission came up I was offered my command post. Plus I think it will be interesting to explore the unknown, and since I am a scientist at heart the thought of exploring the unknown is exciting. Now on to my friend," she moved to the side and placed her hand out beckoning for Naomi to continue.

"Hi, I'm Naomi Wildman, Chief of Astrometrics," she suddenly felt very at home with this crew and Captain and decided to joke around. "And well, my favorite color is red, and my old dogs name was Kara…" she smiled and laughed.

Most of the crew joined her, Faulk smiled, "Now at least someone follows my directions, please continue Naomi."

"I joined because it was the chance of a lifetime for my friend and I to get to map some uncharted Astrometrics territory. I love Astrometics and since I am fascinated by the quadrants we are going to, I am very excited to explore them. Since I have no clue any of your names, insert name here is next." She smiled at the tall women standing next to her.

XOXOXOXOXO

Icheb stood there shocked thinking to himself,_what is Naomi doing here, wait she is the Chief of Astrometics, listen Icheb listen._' He looked back at her and drifted back off into his thoughts, '_She really grew up good, wow she is beautiful…_ he came to the realization of what he just thought,_ICHEB NO TAKE THAT BACK, you can't… but why not_…'

"ICHEB!" Faulk threw a piece of paper at him.

"What" he said coming out of his thoughts, he realized everyone was staring at him waiting for him to continue.

"Gez Icheb you should have gone first then, Mr. Space out." Miral teased him.

"Hello everyone, I am Icheb, Chief of Engineering, and I am here because I get the chance to use my knowledge of the Delta quadrant and my engineering skills to explore new places. Also I got to design the warp core and warp engines and for an engineer that is the chance of a lifetime." Faulk laughed, he knew that was an understatement of the joy that Icheb had creating his warp engine, his baby.

Faulk smiled at everyone, "Well now I guess its time for me to introduce myself formally," his voice got louder and more authoritative," I am Captain James Faulk, obviously I took on this mission because I am crazy and I enjoy challenges. Now that everyone knows everyone we will discuss some rules and some specs of the mission. So let us move to the conference room to talk for a bit and enjoy some chips and soda." He pointed to the conference room table that was full of twentieth century chips and soda, and walked that way, "I like twentieth century food, and I thought it would be a nice treat. So why don't we munch and mingle then get on with our meeting, I think some people want to talk a bit" Faulk winked at Naomi, then at Icheb.

Naomi hung towards the back as the other officers walked through and grabbed some treats and started mingling. Miral grabbed three Dr. Peppers, two bags of Doritos, and a bag of Cheetos and walked back out to the bridge.

She walked over to Icheb and Naomi and handed them both a bag of Doritos and a soda, "Enjoy talking you two."

"Hi…" Icheb started but was silenced by Naomi hugging him

"Icheb…" Naomi said smiling, '_this is going to be an interesting ten years_' she thought to herself as she wrapped her arms around his neck hugging him.

He timidly wrapped his arms around her trying to get his mind to stop fighting with itself, "I didn't know you were going to be here…"

"Yea I just found out three days ago, I barely had time to tell my immediate family." She looked up at him and smiled, "So Mister why didn't you tell me that you were going away for ten years? You obviously had time to design a warp engine but not tell me that you were leaving?" she stood back glaring at him with her hands on her hips.

Icheb flushed, "I didn't think…"

Naomi smiled and laughed, "Yea, I guess I'm guilty too I didn't call you…"

Miral cut in on both of them, she put her arm on Naomi's shoulder, "Icheb don't feel bad, she didn't call me either."

Naomi rolled her eyes at Miral, "Whatever Miral you didn't tell me so…"

Faulk smiled, he knew that the Voyager Trio, as known by Starfleet being the three kids aboard Voyager when it landed, would have fun on this journey together. That's why he was glad that Naomi had signed on last minute, "Well I think I am the one who is most at fault," he walked over to the three of them, "I didn't tell any of you that the others would be here. I wanted you to come on board because you wanted to, but isn't it great that your friends are here?" He smiled then turned and walked to the conference room, "Alright so let's go sit down in the conference room and talk."

He walked into the conference room, "Now that we are all snacked and have some sustenance in us we can begin our Department Heads meeting. I will be having the same kind of meeting with the rest of the crew tomorrow morning, so Naomi if you wanted to bring on that crewman you need to make it by tomorrow morning." With this he looked directly at Naomi, "First things first I am an unorthodox captain, that is why I am the leader of this ship. I have different rules than you guys are probably used to so, here they are. You don't have to wear your uniform when you are not on duty, which is why I have asked everyone to bring some casual clothes, you can replicate more but that will come out of the individual's rations for replicators.

"If you do so choose to wear your uniforms all of the time, which you can if you would like to, then you need to turn your com badge upside down like this." He flipped his com badge around, "This is how we will know if you are on duty or not. Be warned if you are not on duty turn it over because if we need something we look for who is on duty and, well, you can be SOL if you don't have it flipped."

He went through the rules and expectations of his Heads and then started on the personal relationships, "So we are on this journey for ten years, I know that crew people will have relationships. But be warned if this happens and the couple breaks up they MUST not let it get in the way of their work. It's a long time to be stuck with someone who you parted with on bad terms. Even if it is going good they cannot let it get in the way of their work. They must act like nothing is going on during their duty. Once they are off duty they could kiss in the halls if they felt the need to. It's a small ship and everyone will know when something is going on, so just keep an eye out and make sure everyone is following the rules." He continued on about report procedures and the rest of the information that he felt his Heads needed to know.

Naomi sat there listening but also off in her own world, _I am so glad that Icheb is here, and Miral too, this is going to be a fun ten years. Ha the Voyager Trio is back together again_, she smiled inwardly then her thoughts and gaze fell to another direction, Icheb.

XOXOXOXOXO

"So that is how they first met on Odyssey, now let me tell you it's not the most exciting and funny thing that has happened but its critical. They both thought about each other throughout the meeting, it was hilarious Naomi would meet eyes with Icheb and they both would flush and turn away. I think that Faulk was as amused as I was." Miral looked at Naomi and smiled, "They have many more stories that needless to say are amazingly funny, like their first date." Naomi threw an olive at her.

"Girl, I will hurt you SO bad if you tell them." Naomi tried to glare at her.

But Lucas then interrupted, "I guess then I will have the joy of telling that story."

"Fine, then we will tell them about you two and your special relationship… mess hall where you conceived your son…" Icheb said in self defense.

"Whatever, I'm proud of that moment." Lucas countered Icheb.

"Faulk is really different isn't he?" Gresk asked Naomi.

"Yea he is something else. He does some of the most random things. Like the day that he…"

XOXOXOXOXOXO

Faulk smiled to himself. He knew what day it was, and soon everyone else on board the ship would be awake. They had been out on their adventure for three months and he was already showing his crew how different he was, this was going to only solidify their belief that he was different and maybe even a little crazy.

Executive officer (XO) _Shonan_ stopped and stared at Faulk, she had been under his command before and knew what he was going to do, "Hey Mr. Maniac." Faulk jumped in surprise and spun around and stared at her, "Need some help?"

He smiled, "Shonan…" he walked over to her and put his arm around her shoulder and they walked towards their shared computer console in-between their command chairs, "Muhaha, shall we wake everyone up?"

Shonan laughed, "Why do you insist on celebrating Geek Day, Faulk?"

Faulk sighed, "Because I want everyone to embrace their geekyness. Everyone on this ship is a geek and it is the day to celebrate this!" Faulk then pressed a sequence on his console, one that only he knew.

Over the intercom blared, "Geeks, GEEKS, they are in all of us. GEEKS, GEEKS, we rule the world, geeks, geeks, geekyness. COME OUT AND CELEBRATE YOUR GEEKYDOM. It is Geek day, bet you didn't know that, it is Geek day, so get up and CELEBRATE!"

XOXOXOXOXOXO

"Yes, he celebrates Geek day and decided that at five in the morning he would wake everyone up and have them celebrate." Naomi rolled her eyes, "Needless to say it made for an interesting day…"

"Oh yea, you and Icheb's first date was that night." Lucas smiled at his best friend, who was glaring daggers at him.

"Lucas, please do the honors of telling the story." Naomi finally relented knowing that it was going to get told one way or another, "You'll tell them eventually and I would rather we be here when you do."

Lucas smiled and looked at everyone, "See, after their first date I was the one that told everyone on the ship about it. So I have the story correct. This is why the beautiful Naomi will let me tell the story." He smiled at Naomi, Miral laughed and rested her head on his shoulder as he started, "Ok, so, what do Naomi, Icheb, Flotter, Holodeck, and frustration all have in common?"


	3. Frustrated Kiss

HEY EVERYONE!!!!

This is the next installment of After Ten Years, sorry it has taken so long, school and life gets busy but this is my nice break from it. The next chapter is done, and I am doing to send it to my AWESOME beta Mavfan and then it will get posted, thanks for all of your help Mavfan you have made this fic great!!!

Please enjoy the next chapter, any comments and reviews would be great!!!

Marla1

XOXOXOXOXOXO

Naomi stared off into space as she sat in the mess hall. Her soup was slowly growing colder and colder as she stared out of the window, '_When is he going to say something? When the hell is he going to ask me, my god its been a month of me subtlety flirting with him and NOTHING. I know he isn't dense, he is…_'

Miral walked into the mess hall whistling, she had just beat Lucas at Terrace for the fifth game in a row, needless to say she was happy. They started out with Naomi but she left half way through and Miral beat

Lucas at the rest of the games.

She walked to the replicator and requested, "Groatcake with syrup of squill and a glass of Chardonnay" she turned and leaned against the replicator waiting for her food to finish replicating and saw Naomi sitting in the corner by herself, '_that darn boy needs to do something…_' she turned back to the replicator, "Cancel order." She rushed out of the mess hall.

Lucas smirked at her as she rushed past him, she turned around and grabbed his arm, "Lucas" he tried to glare at her but was shocked at the strength of her grip and the fierce glare that she stared him down with. As she started her expression softened, "please go cheer up Naomi she is not looking good."

With his immediate look of concern she let go of him, "What's wrong with her?"

"Oh I am about to go and deal with that… him"

Lucas immediately understood, "Let me know if you need help convincing him…" he sighed, "that boy needs to just ASK her out my god."

"I know." She rolled her eyes, "He is stubborn, now I am going to go and beat it out of him. Thanks Lucas." She smiled at him and they both walked off to their destinations.

Lucas stopped and just stared after her, '_god she can be such a… ass but then she does stuff like this, oh yea and the Non Warrior Klingon rights campaign. She almost went up against the empire heads by herself, man she's got some guts and damn fierce…_' he continued to muse as he walked into the mess hall.

He looked over and saw Naomi sitting at her favorite table staring off into space, he walked over to the replicator and ordered, "One Chai tea latte, hot, one mocha hot, two oatmeal raisin cookies." He grabbed the items and walked over.

She did not notice him walking over, she didn't even notice when he sat down.

Lucas sighed, and shoved the Chai tea over to her. Naomi was broken out of her stupor by the smell of the tea, she looked at Lucas confused.

"Cookie for your thoughts?" he held a cookie in front of her face, she smiled, though a weak one, it was still a smile.

She grabbed the cookie, "I'm fine Lucas, I'm just…"

He laughed, "You're unhappy."

She looked down, "No, I just…" she finally got her resolve, "Why won't he ask me out, god Lucas I thought I was making it obvious that I wanted to date him, that I like him…"

Lucas grabbed her hands, "Naomi stop that right now." She stared at him, "Don't beat yourself up, that is not right and I won't let my best friend do that to herself…"

"Ok so be truthful with me then, do you think that he is interested in me?" Lucas nodded, "Then what is the issue…"

"Naomi all guys are afraid of rejection you know that. Come on he sees this pretty girl flirting with him, who could get whomever she wants but she is choosing him, that makes a guy pretty nervous. What if she just flirts to flirt, what if she doesn't want a boyfriend, what if this and what if that? We may not talk about it as much but guys are insecure about asking girls…"

"Then should I just ask him?" Naomi searched Lucas's eyes for an answer.

"Maybe..."

Naomi got up from the table and walked out of the mess hall, she walked purposely to the elevator, she did not watch where she was going and ran head first into Icheb, who stepped out of the elevator mere seconds before. Not expecting to be run into at full speed he stumbled back against the elevator wall, Naomi falling with him. He pulled her against him trying to keep them from falling.

Naomi's mind went blank, she smiled at him "Sorry about that…"

Icheb looked down at Naomi, but lost his breath again at her smile, he stammered, "not a problem." He awkwardly let go of her, both of them not knowing what to do.

"Destination, please?" the computer broke the silence as the doors to the elevator closed.

"Hold here." Icheb said, wanting sometime to ask her. Naomi smiled at this and waited for him to continue, he turned to Naomi, "Wouldayouliketo..." He took a breath, "Naomi would you like to go to dinner with me on Friday night?"

Smiling Naomi answered, "I never thought you'd ask, yes I would love to go with you.", the look of relief on Icheb's face made Naomi smile even more, "I am going to go back to my shift now, see you on Friday." She walked to the door, it opened as she stepped within sensor range.

"Is 1900 ok?"

She turned and smiled at him, "That's good, see you then…" she walked out of the elevator with a huge smiled on her face.

XOXOXOXOXOXO

She stared at the replicator screen, it was on the clothing menu and sighed, she had been staring at it for twenty minutes, and was reaching her breaking point, "I don't care I just want clothing to wear." She walked away from the computer screen and sat down.

She touched her comm. badge, "Miral." She computer connect her to Miral, "What should I wear?"

Miral laughed, "I'll go look at the replicator screen give me a minute." Naomi heard her command the replicator, once she got that situated and was looking through the options, "So, you excited?"

Naomi sighed, "Yes I am very excited, I am very interested to see where we are going. Darn boy is keeping that a secret."

Miral laughed, "Yes, but he told… I found it girl the perfect outfit. I am sending the outfit to your replicator, compliments of me. Have fun tonight."

Naomi rushed over to the replicator and stared at the outfit on the screen as it was forming, "That's perfect, thanks Miral."

"Have fun and remember to 'Go on and kiss the boy, sha-la-la-la-la-la.'"

"Bye" Naomi tapped her comm. badge again and grabbed the outfit from the replicator. It was a red halter top and a pair of dark blue jeans. She walked into her bedroom and changed quickly after noticing that it was six thirty. She pulled on a pair of black sandals, her red heart necklace, given to her by her grandfather right before she left on the Odyssey and ran into the bathroom.

Icheb stood outside of her door, his heart beating so fast that he just stopped and leaned his head against it, he let out the breath of air that he was keeping in and knocked on the door. He took two steps back and waited for her.

The door chimed as Naomi grabbed her comm. badge and placed it on upside down on her collar, she walked over to the door and stood there for a second gathering herself.

"Open." She commanded the door, she smiled at Icheb and the look on his face boosted her confidence tenfold.

"Ready?" Icheb could barely get that word out, he was still taking in her appearance, as they walked towards the holodeck he thought to himself, '_A beautiful girl like her, why is…_'

Naomi pulled Icheb out of his thoughts as she asked, "So, where are we going Mister because you have kept me in suspense all week and I am so curious…"

Icheb laughed, "The holodeck."

She sighed at Icheb, "I guess if I have waited all week what is a few more minutes."

"That's right." He finally got his confidence back and as they neared holodeck three. He put his hand on her back and directed her to stop in front of the doors. "Computer run program Naomi101."

Naomi looked up at him and smiled, but that smile grew as she computer said, "Program running." The doors opened and they walked in.

XOXOXOXOXOXO

"Oh come on Icheb, swinging is so much fun," Naomi had a hold of his hands and was trying to persuade him to go swinging with her on the swing set in the middle of Central Park.

"I guess…" Naomi laughed and turned to walk towards the swing set, still keeping a hold of one of his hands.

Icheb smiled at her, thinking to himself, '_This girl, she is something else. She is always smiling and happy, god that smile is so contagious._' He was pulled out of his thoughts when Naomi turned around quickly and he ran slightly into her.

She grabbed his other hand and pushed him back on to one of the swings, she leaned forward and whispered into his ear, the tone of her voice causing a shivers to spark throughout his body, "Thank you."

She then sat down on her own swing, "So I bet I can go higher then you." She started pumping her legs, causing the swing to go higher.

Icheb shook himself to get the mental image that she had elicited when she whispered in his ear out of his mind and started swinging too. He had never really enjoyed swinging, until that day. They talked as they swung about nothing and everything.

Icheb smiled, he knew that Central Park had been a good idea for their date, they had dinner at a little Italian restaurant, Louises. She had smiled so much because he had remembered that Italian food was one of her favorites. Then they walked through the park, and Naomi saw the swing set and he was very happy that she had.

Naomi stopped her swing, a thought coming to her mind, '_This is such a perfect spot. Icheb you are something else_'

Icheb immediately stopped his swing and looked at her, "Naomi?"

She bit her lip and turned and stared at him, "Want to continue walking?"

"I would love to." He stood up and held his hand out to her, she gladly took it.

Though as they continued walking she did not let go of his hand, she looked up at him and her heart fluttered, "So do you want to see those pictures that I was telling about over dinner?" she asked after a couple of minutes of silence.

"Sure." Icheb said, so they walked towards the entrance to the Holodeck and towards her room.

Naomi for a split second wondered if they should still be holding hands but for that second when she relaxed Icheb held on tight. This made her giggly with joy, he had been nervous through the beginning of the night and she was happy that he had relaxed, maybe just maybe she would get that end of the night kiss that she really wanted.

They walked to Naomi's room and there they finally had to let go of each other's hands, she walked over to the shelf filled with her photo albums. No one could really understand why Naomi kept her pictures in a photo album, they had much better ways of storing them electronically, but to Naomi it wasn't the same. It was a different experience holding, touching and feeling the pictures. And it was great for moments like this, she could sit close to Icheb and show him memories and explain them.

He sat down on her love seat and smiled as she pulled out her blue photo album, it was one that, while they were still on Voyager, he had made for her.

"So I have to say this is my favorite album, now these are the pictures I think you will enjoy." She started showing him pictures from when they parted on Voyager to a little before Starfleet academy.

"So I think we should break and save those pictures for our next date?" Icheb went out on a limb hoping that it was not too forward of him.

"Defiantly, and two dates from then you better have pictures to show me. Otherwise I will send Seven a long note when we get back about her not taking enough pictures of you." She stood up and put her album back on the shelf.

He stood up and she walked him to the door, he stopped and turned around, Naomi's heart was pounding against her chest, he gave her a quick hug and started to walk out.

Naomi sighed as he walked off, "But I wanted a kiss… oh screw this" She finally walked out of the door kicking off her shoes, she knew that she would have to cut him off using the Jefferies tubes, "I am going to get a kiss if it kills me." She said stubbornly to herself. Throughout the night there had been many times when he could have kissed her but he didn't. She knew he was trying to get a gentleman but she really wanted to kiss him. She ran up the crawlspace and was going to cut him off when he walked past the holodeck.

XOXOXOXOXOXO

'_WHY DIDN'T YOU KISS HER_?' He silently berated himself, '_I didn't want to be a jerk. KISSING ON THE FIRST DATE IS NOT BEING A JERK, ESPECIALLY WHEN SHE WANTS THAT KISS AS MUCH AS YOU DO!, But…_' he fought with himself as the turbolift stopped on floor six. It was the quickest route to his quarters, going through one set of Jefferies tubes but it was better than having to walk all the way around the floor and through zigzags on the floor below to get to his room.

Naomi stood in the open doors of a holodeck waiting for him to walk by. She had hoped that he would walk this way. The doors to the holodeck stood open with a random holostory starting. But Naomi was not paying attention to this nor did she think to specify a holostory or environment so a random one was playing. She heard footsteps coming down the hall, she knew it was Icheb, he did a shuffle, semi picking up his feet, walk.

Icheb walked around the corner and was shocked to see a barefoot, out of breathe Naomi standing there staring at him, "What…"

She grabbed his hand and pulled him into the holodeck, for privacy, not noticing that they walked into in the Forest of Forever and her old friends Trevis and Flotter were running through the forest to greet them.

"I wanted a kiss." She simply stated before wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him.

He stood shocked for only a second realizing that this was really happening. He then gave in and wrapped his arms around her back pulling her closer to him.

Flotter pursed his lips at the sight in front of him, "Trevis what are they doing?"

"I don't know Flotter… but one thing I ponder is, don't they need to breathe? Air is like water is to me, important to life." Trevis walked over to them and studied them, almost scientifically wondering what they were doing.

The computer did not have a command subroutine for this type of situation in this novel. It was a children's holonovel, kissing was not supposed to happen while the novel was running, so the computer had to improvise.

They had to finally break apart for oxygen, Icheb quickly got air back in his lungs and leaned forward for round two, she happily continued round two. But something blue caught his eye and he, reluctantly, broke the kiss, catching his breath he whispered in Naomi's ear, sending shivers down her spine, "What holostory is this?"

"I didn't…" she saw Trevis and Flotter standing there staring at them, their expressions were that of curiosity and questions.

"What are you doing? Isn't that lack of air deadly to you?" he asked like a scientist would ask a research subject.

The computer had decided to take it the route that the novels did, everything was something to explore and if it didn't know something the characters would explore and ask questions of what it was. It showed the learning process to children. But this mortified Naomi. She played with these characters as a little kid and remembered the vigor that they would approach a problem. They were meant to be curious characters, this was why it was so much fun in her younger years, but now them being curious about kissing was not something Naomi ever wanted to associate with Flotter and Trevis.

Naomi groaned, her face turned five shades of red and she quickly buried her face into Icheb's chest, hoping that she did not really hear what she just had.

Icheb stared at these characters, not knowing who they were, with mild curiosity, but when Naomi groaned he knew that they must be familiar to her.

"Well, hello, I am Flotter and this is my dear old friend Trevis, and who might you be?"

Naomi groaned, Icheb looked down at her, her face was beet red, "I take it you know this holostory?"

She nodded into his chest not wanting to look up, she mumbled, "When we were back on Voyager I played this holostory. Oh they will stop at nothing to figure out why and what we were doing, they are curious characters." She smiled up at him remembering why they were in this situation, '_And I got my kiss, and more. Damn he is an awesome kisser, oh lordy…_'

Icheb smiled at her, ignoring Trevis and Flotter, "So get out of here as quickly as possible?"

"Why are you two so close? What were you doing? You looked like you were sucking each others faces off why?" Trevis continued to ask questions trying to analyze what they had been doing.

Naomi turned towards the entrance and started walking out of the story, not remembering that she could turn it off at any minute with a simple command.

Icheb held on to her hand as she strode out of the holodeck, he was trying to not burst out laughing, the characters were so inquisitive and so curious it was amusing to him. Once they were out of the holodeck Icheb quickly walked behind Naomi and whispered in her ear, "They sure were curious. I'm glad that you were just as curious tonight."

Naomi laughed and smiled, "I am too, but…" she turned as they stepped on the turbolift and faced him, "did Trevis and Flotter have to find us? I don't think I'll ever be able to go into that holostory and not remember this night."

The turbolift stopped on her floor before Icheb could say anything.

Once they arrived at her door she turned around and smiled at him, "So, tomorrow night, have any plans?"

Icheb was growing bolder by the minute, "Well I have plans with a beautiful women tomorrow night, I hope that she can meet me in the cinema for the 2100 movie."

Faulk built a small fifty seat movie theater on the ship so that people would always have a place to go and do something if they ran out of holodeck time. In addition to this, there were lounges with games, and other things to keep the crew occupied and having fun.

He saw the gears in her mind twirling, she pulled him into a hug whispering in his ear, "See you then." She turned and walked into her room, as the door closed behind her she leaned up against it very happy.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXO

A couple of months later a very disheveled and obviously upset Naomi was pacing around her living room, waiting, impatiently for Icheb to show up, she paced back and forth.

Icheb stood in front of her door, it opened automatically, Naomi had set that up earlier so that it would open when Icheb came to the door. She had grown tired of waiting and allowed him access. The smile on his face quickly faded when he saw her pacing back and forth. She did not notice him enter her quarters. He walked over to her and wrapped his arms around her, burying his face into her curled hair breathing in her scent of lilac and vanilla.

Naomi stiffened but then immediately relaxed in his arms and sighed, "What's wrong sweetheart?" he asked rubbing his hands up and down her back.

She let out a huge sigh and her voice trembled as she spoke, "Its been a really long, long bad day."

Noticing the tremble in her voice he pulled a little away from her and looked down at her, "What happened, you look…" a tear feel down her cheek, he wiped it away tenderly.

He led her to the couch, keeping his arms securely around her even as they sat down. She laid her head on his chest, listening to his heartbeat for a minute before continuing. "Nothing would work, everything I touched kept frying out on me, I swear everything I touched didn't work. I love him dearly, and I understand why he did it, but Lucas had to kick me out to fix the equipment. We almost lost all the data, I backed it up in five places, and almost all that data was lost because of me and aahh…" She let out a groan of frustration.

Icheb pulled her closer to him as she continued.

"Lucas kicked me out saying that he and Gina would fix it, that ticked me off. I see why the boy did it but still it pisses me off that it happened. So I went to the mess hall and the replicator broke on me and then I fell down as I came back to my quarters. So…" she took a deep breath before continuing, "not only am I breaking everything that I touch, my shoulder hurts, and I cannot find my blue necklace, and I was really excited to go out tonight, but I look like crap, I feel like crap, and I…" she broke down and all the stress from the day just came out as tears started falling from her eyes.

Icheb sighed as he continued to rub her back, "Sweetheart we can just say in tonight. And you do not look like crap…" she laughed at this, he raised her chin so that he could look into her eyes as he said, "You do not look like crap, and you are beautiful and amazing and I love you very much."

Naomi was not self conscious at all, she knew that she wasn't a supermodel but when he said those simple words to her it made her heart melt and soar. She bit her bottom lip as more tears came out.

Seeing her starting to cry more Icheb started to panic, '_I didn't think… I shouldn't have… ICHEB why would you…_' She saw his face immediately fall. He was just so cute sometimes, he would be very forward and extremely spontaneous and bold. But then he would fight with himself over the decision seconds afterward. She found this a very endearing quirk of his that she loved. Her mind started to race with all thoughts on the past couple of months, '_they have been some of the best of my life_.' She realized why she wasn't as sad as she thought she would have been given that she wouldn't be seeing her family for ten years, '_I have my two best friends and the man I have fallen in love with.'_

She smiled at him, tears still falling from her green eyes, "Icheb I love you too with all my heart." It was the first time she told him that and it made her heart soar to know that it was not a guess, or a hope, it was the truth and that he felt the same way.

XOXOXOXOXOXO

Hope you enjoyed, I decided not to leave you with a cliffie at the end of this chapter. Next chapter is back to the reunion, and then a surprise meeting with an old friend of Icheb's, who never stopped carrying a torch for him, should be interesting huh. Please review, I always love to read your comments!!!!!!!!!!


	4. Desserts and a Familar Face

HEY GUYS!

Here is the next chapter of After Ten Years, it's a lot shorter than the others but this was the most logical break that I could come up with. I hope you enjoy this chapter! And I must give props to my amazing beta Mavfan, she is amazing and totally ROCKS and has made this story awesome!

Thank you very much for reading, hope you enjoy!

Marla1

XOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Naomi smiled at the telling of their first date, though she was forever mortified over the Flotter and Trevis incident, it had been one of the best nights of her life. By then she was so caught up in the moment, she told the second part about the day that they said that they loved each other. 

Sam's heart soared, she turned to Gresk and smiled, "Our baby is married…" 

He wrapped his arms tightly around Lexie, "And she has a beautiful baby of her own…" 

Lexie sighed, "Grandpa I am five years and three months old, I am not a baby."

He laughed, Sam was reminded of Naomi when she was that age, a bright and curious girl, "Hey Naomi…" 

Naomi who was in mid laugh turned towards her mother, "Yea mom." Her smile grew wider, "I like saying that."

"I like hearing it from you missy, it seems that it's a perfect time for some food. That is if you can convince your husband to let you go." Sam smiled at both Naomi and Miral, whose husbands had their arms in some way wrapped around their respective wives, they had not moved an inch throughout the story. 

"Might be kind of hard, see Miral and I well…" 

Miral continued, this was an inside joke between the two of them and they enjoyed bringing up every time they could, "Naomi, I keep telling you to ease up on the love potion you have been giving him, it's going to make him loopy."

Lucas and Icheb both sighed, Naomi shrugged her shoulders, "Yea but you know there is no hope for Icheb, and if I gave him half of what you gave Lucas he is going to be batty. You know I knew you shouldn't have given him so much…" 

They both laughed, Naomi saw the looks of confusion cross people's faces, "It's an inside joke, you would have had to been there to really get it. And to see the looks on their cute whittle faces." Both Miral and Naomi went to pinch their husbands faces, but were stopped before they could finish the joke. 

"Food…" Lexie who had vacated her grandfathers lap walked over to her mother and smiled at her, Naomi knew that look, the gears were whirring in her head, "Are we eating dessert first like you said was tradition to do at the reunions?" her eyes lit up at the prospect. 

Sam laughed, Naomi stood up and grabbed Lexie's hand, she leaned down and whispered in Lexie's ear, like it was a secret, "Yea, and we are going to try as many as we want." Then she and Lexie almost skipped over to the dessert table. 

"She got her mother's love of desserts." Sam told Icheb as they turned to follow the two girls.

Gresk laughed, "I'm shocked then that both of them sat here for as long as they did, especially my Naomi. I remember when we came to the reunions with her as a child she was always first at the table. She always reminded us of the tradition and then after all of the introductions she would dance on the balls of her feet until we went to the dessert table."

Icheb laughed as he grabbed two plates and balanced them on his arms, "That sounds like my Lexie and, well, like my Naomi too." 

"Hey sweets." Naomi called over to Icheb, those who were around laughed as Icheb turned around, "Chocolate and carrot?" 

"And pumpkin please…" Icheb turned back around and started piling savory foods on the plates he was carrying. 

"I already got the pumpkin Daddy." Lexie said adding another brownie to her plate. 

Lucas saw Sam looking at Icheb strangely as he piled the food on his plates, "They always do this at buffets, well the dessert gathering is usually last. Next Naomi will go and get a huge salad and Miss Lexie will get drinks. They are a very interesting family." 

Sam turned to Lucas who was carrying Miral and his plates while she grabbed the food items and placed them on the plates, "Lucas you sure grew up good."

Lucas laughed, "Thanks Mrs. Naomi's mom." They both smiled at this, he called her that for years because he knew it annoyed her, "I hope my Dad feels the same way." 

Tom clapped his hand on Lucas' shoulder, "I'm sure your Dad will be proud, hell mine was when I came back and if he could be proud of me yours will be proud of you. You know I think I like you, even though you're married to my daughter. I didn't think I would ever like the man who dared touch her I am very happy with you two." Tom kissed Miral on the top of her head, very happy to have his daughter home, he then turned and walked over towards their table. 

XOXOXOXOXO 

"So then, if you two really fought like cats and dogs' why are you married and so sickeningly happy now." Issac asked his sister Miral.

"Because something stupid had to happen to get him, in all his stubbornness to…" 

Lucas interjected, "More like you and YOUR stubbornness…" 

Miral rolled her eyes and continued, "Ok fine it took me almost killing myself in a holodeck story to come to terms with it. I guess I have Moms stubbornness and Dads all combined into one." 

B'Elanna laughed, "Oh lordy, like mother like daughter." She stared at her son, "Now dear Issac, don't you go looking for girls who turn the holodeck safety controls off and then run a dangerous story. They can only lead to trouble." 

Issac laughed at his mother, "Who knows, maybe I didn't inherit any of the stubbornness, maybe Miral got it all." 

Miral reached across her husband and slapped her bother, "Ah that felt good to slap you, bro." 

"Yea, its so great to have you home sis." He said with some sarcasm in his voice. 

"I want to hear this story, Naomi…" B'Elanna reached over and tapped her on the shoulder, "Will you tell us the story of how my Miral and Lucas started dating?" 

"Why, of course, I would love to, why don't we tell it over dessert?", Naomi smiled at Miral, "Now we get the honors." 

Miral rolled her eyes and dabbed a bit of mashed potatoes on Naomi's nose. 

"Now, now, ladies NO playing with your food at the table, unless you want to make it a full on food fight." 

Faulk said walking up behind Miral and Naomi. 

"Aw why not Capt?"

Lexie smiled and turned to look at Faulk, "Are we going to dance?" 

"Yep, and they are playing our song Missy." Faulk held his hand out to her and she took it, a huge grin plastered on her face. 

Naomi grinned at Faulk, "Have fun, now remember she has to be back at the castle by midnight." They walked off to the dance floor, Faulk scooping Lexie in his arms for their first dance of the evening. Naomi turned back towards the table and continued, "Captain is her Godfather and he promised her that she would have a dance with him. I'm glad he was able to get away from all the big wigs." She said the last part louder as Admiral Janeway walked past their table.

"Watch it Lieutenant." She grinned seeing Naomi's hands fly to her mouth in mock fear as Janeway sat down in Lexie's vacated chair, "Icheb someone is here to see you. I think her name is Kelly, she has been coming to these for years waiting for you to come back. She's at the bar." Janeway pointed to a tall blonde woman who was staring out on to the dance floor with a martini glass in her hand. 

"Hey Icheb, I wonder if she is still after you?" Miral asked very curious as to why Icheb's old friend and pseudostalker was at the Voyager reunion.

Icheb laughed nonchalantly, "I would hope she has moved on, after all, its been ten years. I guess I will go and say hi to her…" he turned to Naomi who struggled to nod her head. 

Naomi was silent, she shot a look to Miral after Icheb got up from the table. Miral sighed, she had meet Kelly on one of the last few days they were on Earth before they set off. It was a very bad first impression of this woman. 

XOXOXOXO 

Kelly tried to wipe away the tears, her Icheb was leaving to go on a mission for ten years and she couldn't go with. It just wasn't fair. 

"But why does he have to go away?" she asked the girl who Icheb introduced as Miral. 

"It's a great opportunity for him, so what exactly are you and Icheb?" Miral was never one for subtly with people.

"Oh, Icheb is mine." She said simply. 

"You guys dating?" 

"No, but he is mine. He just doesn't really know it yet. We have known each other through the SFA years, and I just know he is saving himself for me." 

Miral couldn't figure out how to react to her last statement in a nice way, "But Icheb doesn't seem to notice." 

"He is just being a gentleman, and if it wasn't for this damn trip he would be mine even more." 

Since Miral could not think of a way to answer that and still be nice to her she smiled and decided to end their conversation, "Well, I have to go and help Icheb get some more engine parts on board, so bye." Miral turned to walk away from Kelly. 

Kelly reached out and grabbed Miral's shirt and pulled her back towards her, "IF you take my Icheb away from me, so help me I will hurt you, he IS MINE!" Miral put her hand over Kelly's and started squeezing it, Kelly was not expecting this and tried to pull her hand away. 

"OW THAT HURTS." Kelly screeched, Miral did not let go, though she stopped squeezing it. 

"LISTEN don't you ever touch me girl, you wont know what hit you. You're lucky I have not decided to go Klingon on your ass. GO." Miral glared at her with an extremely fearsome and downright scary glare that made Kelly instantly back away from her. 

Miral turned to Icheb, "Kelly had to go, she said she would see you before you left," she turned back and sent another glare Kelly's way that made her turn around and practically run away, "So, do you need some help mister?" She slapped him on the back and grabbed a box hauling it behind Icheb. 

From that moment on there was never a moment that Miral would think about that strange incident without shuddering.

XOXOXOXO 

Miral never told Icheb about how Kelly had treated her because Icheb didn't seem to realize that Kelly has this unhealthy infatuation with him. He thought they were just friends. Miral knew that she couldn't change Icheb being a nice and sometimes too nice and very often oblivious. But, when Naomi and Icheb started dating, Miral had warned her about Kelly, so that when they returned to Earth, Naomi would know what to expect from Kelly. 

Miral excused herself and Naomi from the table, Naomi grabbed on to Mirals arm trying to keep herself calm, "If that…. woman tries anything… I will hurt her." 

Miral laughed, "Why don't we make this fun Naomi, I have been itching to have a little fun" 

Naomi looked at Miral square in the face and saw the twinkle in her eyes, "I don't know what you are thinking about doing, but I already love the way your mind works Miral. What's the plan?"

XOXOXOXOXOXO

Hope you enjoyed the 4th chapter, the next chapter will be Kelly part 2, don't worry Miss Creepyness goes away and it's a great way too! And in the next chapter you'll hear about Miral and Lucas and when they finally admitted their feelings for each other, oh it will be interesting! Until next time! (I am busy this week but next is break week so I will be able to write more, happy times and the next chapter should be up in the next couple of weeks!)


	5. Kelly and Klingon Situations

Life as a college student really sucks sometimes, but writing is a great way to escape from all the stresses of it!!

Disclaimer: Do you really think I am delusional enough to think I own STV, um yea I think not.

A SPECIAL THANKS TO MAVFAN, she is amazing. Even with all of your craziness in your life you were still able to beta for me and make this chapter even better, thank you SO MUCH!!

Please review, your comments are greatly appreciated!! Without further ado, please enjoy the next chapter of After Ten Years…

XOXOXOXOXOXOXO

"Icheb sweetie!" Kelly screeched, and pulled him into a hug.

"Hey Kel, what are you doing here?" he asked pushing away from her extended hug.

"I am here for you silly." She rolled her eyes, "I got invited and so I came this time and I am very glad I did." She tried to lean forward and kiss him but Icheb moved back.

Naomi had to keep herself from launching at this woman and stick to Miral's great plan. But it took a lot of strength.

"So what have you been doing with your life? Did you get married Kelly?" Icheb, in all of his unawareness did not realize the meaning of what she said.

Naomi winked at Miral as she walked behind Icheb, luckily for their plan he was slightly hunched over, so that she could walk up behind him unseen.

Kelly quickly moved closer to Icheb so he could not move then grabbed his hand, "Oh dear, Icheb don't you know that I…"

Naomi was waiting for that, she then wrapped her arms around him, whispering in his ear, loud enough for Kelly to hear, "Sweetheart, though you look sexy just standing here, could you get me a chocolate martini? I need something because, if I cannot steal you away soon, I am going to need a distraction to get me through the rest of the night." She then leaned her head on his shoulder, "I just keep remembering what you said this morning about our plans for later tonight…" She pretended to then notice Kelly, who looked as if she had just been slapped, she smiled at Kelly, a very forced smile, "Oh sorry, I did not mean to interrupt your conversation. Hi, you must be?"

"Kelly." She said curtly still trying to piece together what had just happened.

"Well hi Kelly, I'm Naomi." She reached with her left hand, making sure that her wedding band was seen, to shake hers.

Kelly did not return the gesture. Naomi simply interlocked her hands back together around Icheb, who was thoroughly confused.

"You're married?" Kelly looked at Icheb with outrage as if a knife had been plunged through her heart.

Icheb was confused why Naomi was so livid at Kelly. But he finally realized what was going on when Kelly turned and started towards the door griping, "You didn't wait... damn it I told you to fuc…"

"Kelly, I'm sorry but I told you back in Academy…" Icheb and Naomi turned to face the quickly departing Kelly.

Icheb wrapped his arms around Naomi and held her close to his body for support.

"Did you ever love me?" Kelly had walked six feet before turning to face Icheb and Naomi.

She saw Icheb pull Naomi closer to him, obviously using her for emotional support, she glared even harder at Naomi.

"As a friend, but I told you back in academy that I would never love you that way… I'm sorry."

Miral then walked over to them, Kelly glared even harder at Miral, "YOU… I told you to not let anyone take him, he is mine…", Miral tried to cut in, but she continued, "AND YOU LET that little whore take MY Icheb."

Miral and Naomi started to yell at her, but Icheb cut in before they could. His tone was icy and frigid, "STOP it right now, Kelly you need to go, NOW. I will not have you insulting my wife or my best friend, you really are not the friend I thought you were."

Lexie came skipping over to where her parents were standing, "Daddy want to…" she started to ask but when she reached her parents, she could tell that something was wrong, all of the people standing there turned and stared at her. The woman whom Lexie did not know stared at her wide eyed.

"Lexie, why don't you go find and dance with your Grandpa Chakotay? Daddy and I have to take care of something." Naomi said not trusting Kelly's mental capabilities.

Naomi did not trust her actions because she was upset and angry. Kelly had held on to that fantasy for so long, she did not know if Kelly would lash out at Lexie as a symbol of what she had lost. She also did not trust her own actions if Kelly laid a hand on her child. Plain and simple Naomi did not want to risk anything happening to their daughter, again.

"Ok momma." She turned around to go and find her grandfather, she did not see that Kelly was glaring daggers at her as she skipped back off.

Kelly turned around and stormed off, grumbling things to herself.

Naomi turned in Icheb's arms and wrapped her arms around Icheb pulling him into a loving embrace.

Icheb felt himself melt into her embrace, he let out a laugh finally reliving some of the tension that had built up, "I guess people sure do change."

"Or some just don't change at all." Naomi said in reference to Kelly.

"Hey guys, why don't you go sit at the bench over there?" Miral pointed to an empty bench along the back wall of the room, she continued, "and talk, I'll tell the parents and peeps that they have to wait for the story." Miral said pointing to a table in the back of the room.

Icheb smiled at Miral's consideration and caring nature, she might be semi rough on the outside but she was really a softy at heart, "Thanks girl."

Naomi and Icheb walked over to the bench, Icheb pulled Naomi on to his lap and into a hug. He sighed, "God, I never thought that she would… the look she gave Lexie, if she had touched my little girl…"

"She would have had at least ten people going after her, firstly me and you and what was left of her would have had to deal with Miral and Lucas next…" she wrapped her arms around him leaning her head on his chest.

"Naomi, why didn't I ever see through her? She apparently kept this infatuation for fifteen years, what is wrong with me that I didn't see it?" Icheb's voice faltered at the end and he stared down at the floor.

Naomi looked back up at him, "Now Mister, don't you start doubting yourself, she was your friend and you trusted her. She apparently didn't understand when you said that you did not want to be hers you meant it, or she thought you were toying with her."

"Did I lead her on at all?" she saw that he desperately needed confirmation.

She reached her hand to his face and gently lifted his face up so that she could look into his hazel eyes as she told him, "Sweetheart I know you, you wouldn't have messed with her heart like that, you are too much of a gentleman. Look at us and the starting out of our relationship." She smiled at him.

He started to feel a bit better about the situation, he was still distressed, but Naomi knew that he did not doubt his integrity anymore, "I love you." He leaned forward and kissed her.

"GET A ROOM GEZ!!" the Doctor walked by a couple sitting on a bench kissing.

Naomi turned and stared at him, "We have one thank you very much, Doc, but our daughter is out there dancing and we can't very well just leave her here."

He stood there shocked, "Naomi Wildman…" he looked a little harder at Icheb, "Icheb…" he was trying to process what was going on, when Lexie came skipping over to her parents.

"Daddy, Grammy Seven said that you two were needed at the table STAT!." She giggled at the last part.

Icheb and Naomi stood up, Icheb quickly picked up Lexie and started walking towards the table. Naomi smiled at the Doctor, "That's Lexie, my daughter and Icheb is my hubby."

He gave Naomi a huge hug, "Oh I am so excited, I thought I saw a spark between you two on the ship. Oh, that is so great that you two are together, wait this means that the Voyager trio is back. And if you two are back… where is Miral?" Naomi strung her arm through his and turned him around to face their table, "Well, she is over there." Naomi pointed to their table, he saw Miral and instantly smiled, "Now Doc you know you want to come over and listen to the story of how Miral and her husband, Lucas got together." They started towards the table.

"Miss Miral is married?" he asked shocked that his god daughter was married.

"Yea, actually to a friend of mine, I think you met him at some point, Lucas Fennings."

"He was that obnoxious friend of yours from Academy… Miral married him?"

"Yep, oh you'll love them together and you'll love the story a lot too." They reached the table, everyone greeted the Doctor and Naomi sat down next to her husband and daughter, "So as I was telling Doc, I am going to get the pleasure of telling how Miss Miral and Lucas finally got past their stubbornness and started dating."

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

"Computer, start new program Miral observations 6 - Klingon High Council meeting, set parameters to observer setting, observer Miral Paris." Miral said to the computer, she hitched her shoulder bag up on her shoulder; it was filled with a data pad, four different colored notebooks and tons of different color pens and pencils.

Miral, like Naomi, liked using actual notebooks instead of everything being in a data pad. Eventually everything then was transferred to the data pad but it was also a lot more conducive to take her observation notes by hand. She was using the holodeck to study the Klingon High Council.

Miral's goal was to get the Klingon High Council to change the High Council views on non-warriors, especially female non-warriors. Scientists, doctors, engineers and many other professionals were treated like second-class citizens in the Klingon Empire. Miral felt that this was a travesty. She, and some other like minded Klingon's knew, without these people, progress would halt and the Klingon Empire would fall.

She had planned to go to back to the High Council the next year, but Faulk offered her the position aboard Odyssey and she could not pass it up. Now she had ten years to prepare for this endeavor. This ten-year stint gave her more credibility in the eyes of the High Council. Faulk also promised her extra scientific observation hours on the holodeck to learn the mannerisms of the High Council members, and to learn and practice ways to combat them. He supported her fight and he wanted to do all he could to prepare her for the battle. He was helpful, not only with the extra holodeck time, but with strategy sessions, he had dealt with the High Council on many occasions and had a lot of experience. He also backed her up with the big wigs in Starfleet. Since he was backing Miral, her career in Starfleet would not suffer since her beliefs were justified by another, high-ranking, Starfleet member. He knew that it would have if she did not have him backing her up.

Miral had already faced the High Council three months before Odyssey left. It had been one of the scariest and most exhilarating experiences of her life. She learned a great deal from it. She went in with very little research and posed her ideas, wanting to plant the seed, so that it was not a radically new concept when she came back from her tour aboard Odyssey. She took a great risk doing this, it was very gutsy but she stood up for her beliefs. Even when the Council ridiculed and laughed at her, she did not back down. Miral showed them she had guts by not backing down when they poked fun at her. She definitely made an impression on them, whether it was good or bad she did not know, but she knew that her name was known. Chancellor Martok was accustomed to everyone listening and when the Council said something that person would readily agree with them. However, Miral was an anomaly to him, she had an extremely forceful presence given her small stature and seemingly, unassuming nature and she stood up for herself and her ideas. From this experience, she learned that she needed more background and needed a hell of a lot more authority, than she had as a newly graduated Cadet from Academy.

Miral walked into the holographic High Council chambers and sat down in a seat behind the attendees and pulled out her four notebooks. She had a notebook for Chancellor Martok, then one for the three Councilors, Duras, Kurn, and K'Tal, then one for the two advisors, Chief of Staff General Chang, and Military Advisor Brigadier General Kerla, and one for the four diplomats, Advocate Ch'Pok, Ambassador Kell, General Korrd. She was meticulously studying and documenting each of the members and soon she would know each of the members like the back of her hand. Then she was going to use the holodeck to practice and perfect her arguments. Miral was passionate about this cause and she was going to make a difference.

For hours, she flipped between the four different notebooks making different comments about their decisions, habits and quirks. She noted: 'Chancellor Martok always blinks when he gets annoyed. He swishes his hand when he is about the cut someone off'. She continued writing and completely lost track of time.

XOXOXOXO

"Computer, locate Miral Paris." Lucas let out a sigh as the computer indicated that she was in the holodeck. "What the hell?" He started jogging to the holodeck to chew her head off.

They were supposed to meet that morning and start on a program for the Astro lab. Naomi, being the nice best friend that she was, decided to have Miral and Lucas work together on this project. She justified that they were the best in their areas and she knew that if they worked together, they could really get a good program. She also hoped that they would stop being so darn stubborn and finally admit that they liked each other.

He grumbled to himself, 'Naomi you are so annoying, this is such a transparent attempt at matchmaking, gez she could be a little more subtle about it. Plus I don't like Miral at all, god I don't get why she thinks I do. And then Miral doesn't even show up this morning. And now I find out she is on the freaken holodeck, she is not supposed to be in there. I had to get my ass out of bed on a Saturday and meet her and she is playing on the holodeck.' He walked up to holodeck six and commanded the doors to open.

"Observer?" the computer asked.

"Yes." He said, not really knowing why the computer asked that question. He stalked on to the holodeck expecting to find Miral lying about. But much to his confusion, he found her sitting in the back row of a High Council meeting scratching notes in four different notebooks. He stood there and watched her for a couple of minutes, she seemed to be observing what the Council was doing. Lucas walked over to Miral and tapped her on the shoulder.

Miral spun around and pushed him up against the wall so quick that he did not have time to wrap his mind around what happened.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Miral was shaken up, she thought she had locked out the holodeck, and now Lucas was in here. She thought to herself, 'probably to annoy me, I don't need this RIGHT NOW BOY!'

He grabbed her hands, Miral was a little surprised at his grip, "Would you mind getting off me" he hissed pushing her off him.

She backed away from him, "Mind answering my question now?" she glared at him

"We were supposed to meet to discuss the Astrodata program."

She looked confused, and then it turned to shock, "What time is it? The last time I checked it was 900 hours."

"Its now 1300 hours, I take it you forgot?"

"No…" she lashed out at him, 'the nerve' she thought to herself, she continued, "I got distracted, how the hell did you get into MY program…" she got more irritated at just seeing him standing in her program looking so haughty.

"I WALKED IN, and what the hell is this anyway?" he swept his arm around the room.

But before Miral could explain, the holodeck blinked in and out, the characters paused and went back to their original positions, "Holonovel reset to original parameters."

Miral turned back around to see Chancellor Martok stand up and point his finger in her direction.

Chancellor Martok's voice boomed, "WHAT IS A WOMEN DOING IN…" he looked like he finally recognized her, "Miral Paris, what are you doing back here? We told you to come back when you grew up a little." he pulled out his betleh and all the other members pulled out their weapons and started towards them.

"SHIT!" Lucas yelled, and started to back away, but Miral jumped forward, grabbed her notebooks, and shoved them into her bag.

Miral was so busy with her notes and bag, she did not notice General Martok advance towards her. He lifted his betleh to take her down, Lucas saw this and reached forward and pulled Miral away from the path of the blade. He spun them around and took them to the ground to avoid the backlash of the weapon. Miral tucked in as they went down and under a table, "Computer stop program", she yelled. Though later, she would remember how shocked she was that Lucas was able to catch himself in the middle of their roll and not crush her.

"Unable respond, all user controls and Holodeck safety turned off." The computer responded.

"Lucas, we need to get out of the council rooms…" Miral said trying to slow her breathing, her heart fluttered a little as he smiled at her.

"Ok, so the door is over there…" Lucas pointed to his right.

"I'll get the guard you get some weapons in the hall." Miral then pushed him off in that direction and jumped up, catching a guard by surprise tripped him, then turned and followed after Lucas.

They ran and fought for what seemed like hours, collecting weapons, running through the capital city, fighting their way to try to find somewhere safe.

"So why were you in there?" Lucas asked Miral as they fought a group of guards.

"I am observing the High Council so when I meet with them after we come back, I'll be able to try to get in motion the changing of some ideals in the Empire." She turned and slammed her fist into the guard that had snuck behind Lucas and was going to take him down.

He crumpled to the ground, Lucas smiled at her, "Thanks Miral, Chancellor to your left." she turned and tripped the Chancellor, he fell like a ton of bricks.

"Go left Lucas." They ducked down an alley and continued running.

XOXOXOXOXOXO

"Is everyone accounted for?" Faulk yelled to his chief of security, Mannif.

"Everyone but Lucas and Miral, sir." He was flipping through screens trying to locate their comm. signals. "Shit where the hell are they?" He mumbled to himself.

"Has anyone seen them this…" Faulk started.

"They were supposed to be working on the Astrodata program this morning…" Naomi spoke up. "I'll go and look for them… Marie can you go check their quarters and I will go and check the mess hall, maybe their comm. badges fell off…."

"Naomi, check the holodeck, Miral was doing observations there this morning." Faulk nodded to her.

"Faulk, we need a damn program that doesn't look for comm. badge signals but for the freaken people themselves." Naomi said as Marie and she walked onto the lift.

"When you find those two and this crap is situated make that the TOP priority for you and any personnel you need." Faulk said looking at the Ops station to survey the damages, as he finished the turbolift doors closed.

They hit an anomaly, which caused a massive power surge through four of the six main computers. Faulk sighed, "Ok, send survey teams to decks two, three, and six." Faulk set Trisha, fifth in command of Ops, to go about planning that and walked back over to his chair and sat down.

"Captain, I found them. They are in Holodeck six." Mannif said, "But it looks like the user controls have been turned off and, aw shit the safety too."

Faulk started towards the elevator immediately worried, "What program was she running?"

"Miral observations 6 – general Klingon High Council" he turned to the Captain, knowing full well what Miral was doing. He also knew the tempers that would fly when they found her in their chambers. "GET her out of their Captain."

The doors to the turbolift closed, Faulk slammed his fists into the wall, "Level six."

XOXOXOXOXO

"Luc…" she yelled as Councilor K'Tal grabbed her and pushed her against the wall.

Lucas turned around and started running at K'Tal yelling, "LET HER GO!" K'Tal was shocked by the threatening tone in his yell.

K'Tal turned and was shocked to find Lucas so close, "Puny Vulcan half breed." He went to spit at Lucas, but was instead met by Lucas' feet connecting with his arm and face, he crumpled to the ground. His knife, which had found its way into Miral's thigh, went down with him, leaving a ten-inch gash in her leg.

Miral slumped to the ground, his knife still sticking out of her thigh. Lucas immediately shoved K'Tal's body off hers. She tried to stand up, not realizing that he had gotten her with his knife, and fell forward.

Lucas caught her, and pulled her close to him, "He got you with his knife, in your thigh." He looked around and saw an empty building, "Lets get you fixed up and then, we can keep moving."

Miral smiled at him, and went to take a step, she stopped, tears of frustration pouring down her cheeks, "Yea, that's why it hurts too bad."

Lucas reached around her then picked her up and ran into the building. He set her down on a ledge telling her to try to hold the wound together. He sprinted back outside, pulled K'Tal's body into the building, and dropped him in a heap at the bottom of the ledge. He did this so they would not be discovered as quickly if someone walked through that alleyway. He ran back over to Miral.

He spent the next five minutes bandaging her leg. He stemmed the blood flow by using the legs of her pant as a tourniquet. He was also able to make a splint out of some cardboard to keep the bandages steady. He finally looked back up at her, "Better?"

Miral sighed, "Yea, thanks." She looked around the empty building and sighed, knowing full well this is where they had to hide out, she leaned forward and whispered in Lucas' ear, causing shivers to spark through his body, "I think we should hide out in here for a while Lucas, I can't run and I will just get us killed. We can tuck K'Tal in one of those boxes." She pointed to the huge crates in the corner, "We can hide in the rafters."

Lucas smiled at her, "Ok, I'll put jack ass in the crate."

K'Tal started to come around, "WHERE AM…"

"SHUT UP." Lucas said roughly picking him up and unceremoniously shoving him into an open crate and slammed the lid on it. K'Tal's complaints could not be heard once the lid was on the box. Lucas felt a bit safer knowing that box was soundproof and he could not give away their location.

Miral stood up and made it to the ladder, on one foot, then Lucas helped her climb to the loft area, she tucked herself into the corner shivering from cold and blood loss. Lucas pulled the ladder up to the loft area with them, making it more difficult to follow or find them.

Lucas quickly joined her, as the door to the warehouse was slammed open. He moved right next to Miral and wrapped his arms around her, protecting her from view with his body. She tucked in closer to him, and he pushed them further into the corner.

"QUICKLY, CHECK the building. DAMN IT, we need to kill those half breeds." Councilor Kurn screamed to his henchmen.

"No one here sir" they said as they quickly checked, luckily they did not think to look up to find them.

"Lets go then, send a crew back here to search the place more thoroughly." They ran out of the warehouse.

"More will come" Miral whispered.

"Then we should get comfortable." Lucas said, he picked her up, set her small frame on his lap, and pulled her close to him, he whispered in her ear, "Better?"

Miral sighed, "Much. Wait let me take off my bag first I cannot lose my notes." He loosened his grip on her and helped her take off her bag, he tucked it safely next to him and checked her leg to make sure it was stable then pulled her back to him.

It was the beginning of winter and, rightly so, it was cold in the warehouse, Miral's shivers died down as Lucas' body heat warmed her up.

XOXOXOXOXOXO

"Come on, we need to get them out of there, they have been in there for ten hours." Faulk yelled at the computer console, the frustration of the last ten hours was getting to him.

Naomi and Faulk worked into the night trying to get their friends out of the dangerous holodeck, "FINALLY." She yelled as she overrode the command code. "Captain, you now have clearance." She turned to him.

He stood up, "Override all computer commands, opens doors, stop program, Faulk Alpha Beta Gamma six."

The doors opened, Lucas and Miral were standing in the middle of the room, back to back and looked to have been fighting a group of people.

They turned and faced the doors, Miral leaned on Lucas for support as they calmly walked out of the holodeck, bloody, bruised and banged up. Faulk and Naomi moved back as they walked out, they stopped and turned towards each other.

Miral walked to Lucas and wrapped her arms around his neck pulling him into a very fervent kiss, Lucas pulled her closer to him enjoying the feeling of her in his arms.

Faulk walked over to Naomi and rested a hand on her shoulder, "Finally they are out… please get them to Sick Bay. Wildman you and Icheb have the rest of today and tomorrow off, enjoy." She nodded and he walked towards the bridge.

Naomi walked behind them and started ushering them towards the elevator. They stopped kissing, Lucas picked up Miral to keep her off her leg, she happily wrapped her arms around his neck and sighed a very happy sigh.

Naomi laughed, she was not happy about the situation they were put in, but she was happy to see them finally kissing each other. They thought that she and Icheb were stubborn, but it took Miral and Lucas YEAR to get past theirs.

Naomi laughed as they got on the turbolift, Miral kissed him again, finding out quickly that she would never tire of his kissing.

Miral broke the kiss with him and stuck her tongue out at Naomi and laughed, "Hey Naomi, about damn time you got us out of there."

Naomi popped her in the back of the head and Lucas too, who readily agreed with Miral, "Dorks. Sick bay please"

XOXOXOXOXOXO

B'Elanna laughed, "So you fought in the Klingon Capital City for ten hours… damn. No wonder you finally got past your stubbornness that will do it to ya."

Miral laughed, "Yea, and that was such a special time."

Lucas leaned down and swept his wife up in a kiss, Tom sighed and turned to Naomi.

"What happened after that?" he asked.

Naomi smiled, "Well, they acted like they had been dating forever, Miral and Lucas are major PDAers and they felt that..."

Miral broke the kiss and finished, "After fighting the Klingon's for ten hours, we should be able to do whatever we damn well please when we were not on duty." Miral smugly finished.

"They started dating, and were married a year after Icheb and I were. Their engagement was something for the record books let me tell you…"

B'Elanna looked very interested to hear that story but Miral cut her off, "First missy I get to tell about yours then you can about mine."

"Yes" Sam and Gresk chimed in.

"Ok, then I can eat my dessert." Naomi smiled, Icheb, Lexie and Naomi started in on their leftover desserts as Miral started the story. She always loved to hear this story, it made her cry every time she heard it, her Icheb was so darn romantic.

"Ok, so remember, from their first date the park, well keep that scene in your mind." Miral started, everyone's attention at the table was drawn to their dessert and the story.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

So next chapter is about Naomi and Icheb's engagement, and possibly Miral and Lucas' too. I should be done with the chapter next week but I make no promises because school is well school and it keeps me busy.

HOPE YOU ENJOYED THE CHAPTER, all reviews and comments are most appreciated!!


	6. A Ruby Ring

SO ITS BEEN A CRAZY COUPLE OF WEEKS, school, finals, family hardships, and moving into my new apartment!! So yea that's why I havnt updated, and then not having internet for a week (OH I almost died it was BAD), but now its summer and I should update more. I hope that you enjoy this chapter, it's a sweet chapter, and that you review at the end!!

And GREAT BIG HUGE THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to Mavfan, my amazing beta, you are awesome and make this story better!!

And now on to the next installment of After Ten Years!!

XOXOXOXOXOXOXO

"But Icheb…" Icheb pulled Naomi out of her room.

"Sweetheart you look amazing. Now if we don't leave now we are going to be late."

"But I am not…"

He pulled her on the turbolift and pushed her up against the wall capturing her in a heated kiss.

Naomi relaxed against him, he whispered in her ear, "You look beautiful, you took my breath away when I saw you."

She pulled him in for another kiss, he was just so romantic; she did not know what to do with him, so kissing him was the best choice.

"Floor six" the computer stated, they broke their embrace and walked out of the turbolift.

"So are we visiting the Forest of Forever tonight?" Naomi joked.  
Icheb let out a laugh, "Computer run Naomi504, clearance Nu Alpha Omega Mu Iota, "but of course my love."

The first time that Naomi found out that Icheb's pass code spelled out her name she was so touched. She did not know why something as simple as him changing his pass code meant so much to her. But it truly meant the world to her to hear that, and every time she heard it her heart swelled with love for him.

"Crazy boy." She said as the doors to the holodeck opened. He reached out and grabbed her hand, and they walked into central park. Naomi smiled at him, recognizing the place they had had many dates, "Central Park."

"And we are going to Jacques Bistro. Our dear Captain recommended it to me." Icheb said.

"Oooo lalala."

"Oh yes, and then dancing."

Naomi stopped and stared at him, wondering if he was joking. Icheb nodded to her, she grabbed his hand and they continued walking towards the restaurant.

They walked to the bistro where every window looked out over the river and they were immediately seated. From their seat was a picturesque view of the sun setting over Central Park.

Naomi looked out and smiled, "Oh my, that is so beautiful."

Icheb was staring at her, "Yes, you are."

Naomi turned to him and smiled, "So mister smooth talker, what else do we have planned for tonight?"

XOXOXOXOXOXO

"Dessert was absolutely the most amazing thing I have ever tasted. It was oohh so good." Naomi spun around as they walked out of the restaurant, she stopped and faced Icheb.

"Now, that dancing I promised you is to our left." Icheb said held his arm out for her.

She looped her arm through his pulling him to a stop. She stepped in front of him giving him a kiss. He pulled her against him, "You're going to be the death of me you know that?" he mumbled as she pulled away from the kiss.

She smiled at him, "Now, now, now mister I am a fine proper lady, and I just don't know what you are talking about. Dirty man with his dirty mind, trying to taint my purity."

Icheb laughed, she was definitely one of a kind, "Oh yea, well watch me taint that purity" Naomi laughed and took off running towards the left.

It took Icheb a second to decide to tackle her to the ground and then he took off running after her.

Naomi ran out of the cropping of trees and stopped at the sight in front of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. There was a dance floor with little gold tables circling it, and people were dancing. It reminded her of the story she told Icheb on their second date when she showed him more pictures. Her father took her to a ball which took place outside of the Chicago Museum of Art. She had always dreamed of dancing in front of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, ever since her visit to New York when she was fifteen.

Icheb stopped himself quickly when he saw her standing there. He walked up behind her and whispered in her ear "I hope it is everything you wanted it to be."

Before she could say anything Icheb pulled her out on to the dance floor and wrapped his arms around her.

She whispered in his ear, "Its everything and more… thank you sweetheart."

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

"Oh, my feet hurt, Naomi carry me please." Icheb teased as she slipped off her heels.

Naomi stuck her tongue out at him, and leaned down and grabbed her shoes, "Ah, so much better."

He wrapped his arms around her shoulders as they walked.

"Want to go on the swings." He already knew the answer but he loved seeing her reaction to this.

Naomi smiled at him and squealed, "Yes, yes, yes, lets go swinging!!", she noticed out of the corner of her eyes that he was fidgeting and grabbed his hand and pulled him towards the swings.

Icheb was pulled away from his thoughts, and he laughed at her enthusiasm. He decided to surprise her as they approached the sandbox he spun her around to face him. He leaned down and kissed her and wrapped his arms around her pulling her to him. She laughed and wrapped her legs around his hips and her arms around his neck planting another kiss on his lips. He carefully walked through the sand keeping her close to his body. When he felt a swing hit his hands, he slowly placed her on a swing but continued to keep his arms wrapped around her. He continued kissing her, reveling in the feeling of her closeness. It helped to calm his nerves, he was going to ask her soon and his nerves were frayed. He pulled apart from her and sat down on the swing next to her. She flashed him with her special smile, the one that was only for him.

They continued talking and started swinging. Icheb loved swinging it brought out a little child in Icheb that made him feel like he could soar across the highest peaks and swim across the deepest oceans so long as she was with him. As they swung and talked he was trying to rehearse his speech in his head. He thought that if he practiced it enough he would not mess up, but little did he know that it would not turn out how he expected.

"So Mister why do you keep fidgeting so much?" Naomi had slowed down her swinging and was looking at him.

He turned shrugged his shoulders and smiled at her, "I just wanted to make sure this night was great for you… I had been planning it for a while." Icheb tried to continue on the line of the speech he made but it slipped from his mind.

Naomi laughed, "Sweetheart anytime I get to spend with you is amazing. You know me…"

Icheb was starting to freak out, he couldn't remember his speech at all. Then she smiled at him and all thoughts left his mind, SHIT he thought to himself what do I do?

Naomi watched Icheb internally battling with himself. She was very curious as to why he was so fidgety. Then when she smiled at him, he looked like he had just forgotten everything else in his mind.

Though she would never admit it, Naomi was slightly pleased with herself at this. He was usually very in control of his emotions and his demeanor. But she had found out over the past two years that she was his kryptonite. Whenever something big happened in their relationship, like after their first date, after they said they loved each other, after the first time they had sex, she could walk by or just lightly touch his shoulder, and he would lose his train of thought or would turn around and wink at her, in a very un-Icheb way.

He tried to be such a gentleman but, as he always said, his vixen turned loose a little beast inside of him that he couldn't control. She always laughed at that because he did the same to her. She had never been so comfortable around any of the men she tried dating.

Icheb finally caught, out of the corner of his eye, that she had stopped swinging, and was sitting in on the swing with both hands folded in her lap facing him. At that moment, he stopped fighting with himself and decided to say whatever came to his mind. He knew that whatever came out would be right because he knew deep down in his heart that she was the one for him. He slowed his swing and eventually jumped off the swing.

Naomi started to get up too but Icheb stepped in front of her swing and grabbed her hands, he kissed them gently and started, "Naomi, I had a speech planned and I knew exactly what I was going to say to you, well more like what I was going to ask you. But again, you took me by surprise and…" he took her right hand and dropped down on one knee.

Naomi gasped, she had not been expecting this tonight.

Icheb continued, "I came on to this ship with single minded determination to do a damn good job and to keep my engine running. Little did I know that the Captain brought you on board too and even littler did I know that I would be madly in love with you at this time. When I first saw you… you took my breath away, as you still do to this day." Naomi chuckled at that, "You are the first thing I think about in the morning and the last thing I think about, or see, at night. I feel like I can do anything with you here and by my side…" Icheb reached into his pocket, "Will you do me the greatest honor and stay with me forever? Miss Naomi Wildman will you marry me?"

He opened the little black box to reveal a white gold, ruby encrusted ring. The rubies were inset in the shape of small hearts that went around the entire band, they met in the middle with a diamond heart that shone so beautifully in the moonlight.

Icheb saw tears forming in her beautiful eyes. He learned very quickly that tears did not mean sadness, he had learned quickly that Naomi cried sometimes when she was happy. She nodded as he finished his last sentence, he took the ring out of the box and placed it on her finger.

Naomi finally comprehended everything and dove towards him in the sand giggling like a schoolgirl. She pushed him down and thoroughly kissed him. Finally they had to break apart for air. Naomi smiled at him, as he kissed her hand with the engagement ring, trying to convince herself that skipping around the playground and screaming would be too childish. Icheb looked up at his angel, silhouetted by the moonlight and knew that they may have eight more years of traveling in deep space, where they never knew where they were going to end, up or if they would survive this mission, but whenever she was by his side, everything in the world was good.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Hope you enjoyed it!!

Next chapter is how Lucas asked Miral to marry him. Little hint it involves the bridge, Lucas being, well, Lucas, Miss Miral being her radiant, sarcastic self, and almost all of Odyssey's crew!!


	7. Her Amazing Day

Hey guys

So sorry for not updating sooner, my muse was on hiatus. I heard a song and it sparked my muse. She is now working and I should be getting the next chapter done soon. THIS chapter is not Miral and Lucas's engagement, my muse was trying to tackle that and get inspiration so she turned to this. I am getting Miral and Lucas' engagement written now and its better than before hehehe, battles, bridges and rings!!

Thank you to my most amazing beta, Mavfan, she is SOOOOOO AMAZING!!

Hope you enjoy this chapter and please review!!

Marla1

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

_"Naomi you got yourself a very good man…" Gresk's voice wavered at the end, he instead choose to slap Icheb in the back, "Welcome to the family son."_

_Tears ran down Naomi's cheeks, she smiled at her father, it was a huge step for him. Seeing his daughter after 10 years and then finding out that she was married and had a child, it was a huge step for him to accept Icheb._

_Icheb looked over at his smiling wife, and his sleeping daughter. Lexie was sprawled across two chairs with her head in her mother's lap, completely passed out._

_"Thanks dad." Was all Icheb said, he could not think of anything else to express his feelings._

Miral laughed, "oh if you loved that then you will love this."

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Naomi paced back and forth, her dress swishing as she turned, Miral rolled her eyes.

"GIRL, if you don't sit down and stop swishing I will take you down. I don't care that it's your wedding day." Miral walked over to her and smiled, though her words were harsh she gently led Naomi to a bench and helped her sit down.

"Now girl, I love you dearly but why are you so nervous?"

"How do you think you'll feel when you are in my shoes missy? I'm nervous and elated and I want to see him and I want to get out of this room and I just don't know what to do…"

"What else but run…" this sent Miral and Naomi into a fit of giggles, it was an inside joke between the two best friends.

"Hey ladies, may I come in" Faulk asked over the intercom while still standing outside of the room.

Naomi and Miral stopped laughing and Naomi calmly said, "Come on in Captain."

"How are you ladies doing?" Faulk smiled at the look of joy on Naomi's face. "Its time." He looked solemnly at Naomi, but couldn't hold it and cracked a smile continuing, "Come on ladies everyone is there and sitting down." He walked over and helped both of the women up.

Naomi took a deep breath and took Faulk's arm, he was leading her down the aisle, since her dad couldn't be there. Faulk was the father of everyone on the ship so it also seemed fitting. She smiled at him, tears threatening to fall.

Miral walked ahead of them out of the room, and down the hallway to the great room. The center of the ship was set up to have many smaller multipurpose rooms, with dividers and walls that could be configured for any use.

For this special occasion they removed all the dividers and walls so that everyone on the ship could be at the ceremony. They stopped in a beautiful nebula so that everyone could attend while the computer ran all the primary systems without anyone watching the controls. The crew was one big family and events like this were so important to them that no one would miss them.

Faulk stopped when he noticed tears falling down Naomi's cheeks, he turned to her and gently brushed the tears from her cheeks, "Now Miss Naomi, why the tears?"

"I am just so happy…" Naomi smiled at him, tears falling even more, Faulk pulled her into a hug knowing the feeling that was going through her right now, he remembered it clearly from his wedding day.

He stood there holding Naomi, he felt like a father giving away his little girl to the man she loved. It was heart breaking yet so fulfilling he was at a loss for words. He pulled away from the hug and wiped the tears from her face, "Now missy, cannot have you going in there all puffy faced and red. Computer, one cold damp towel."

One towel appeared in the replicator to his left, he picked it up and gently wiped her face, the red color slowly fading.

Naomi smiled at him, "Thanks…"

"Naw Miss Naomi its nothing." he turned and started leading her to the ceremony, "You guys are my family and I love all of you so, no need for thanks Missy." He turned to her and kissed her on the forehead.

A huge smile was on his face as he led her to the doorway, "you ready?"

"YES.", she looked for him at the front of the room and smiled the smile that only Icheb could bring out of her.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Icheb's heart was racing, he was standing in front of the entire crew, his entire family, excluding the Voyager crew who were obviously unable to attend, about to marry the woman of his dreams. He smiled as Miral walked down the aisle, in her deep red strapless dress, with a huge smile on her face. She quickly stuck her tongue out at him and just as quickly as it came her face was back to smiling and looking serene.

Lucas shifted at Icheb's side he whispered, "Oh my…"

Icheb smiled at him and whispered, "Oh Lucas, you will have your hands full with that one."

"Don't I know it… you will with Miss Naomi too…"

Icheb was going to reply back but when she appeared at the door he felt his heart melt into a thousand pieces and his attention lay only with the amazing women standing in the doorway.

'Oh she is so beautiful' he had not seen her in her dress, wanting to keep that a surprise for this day. She had commented before that she loved it and felt incredibly beautiful in it but he now wanted to tell her that was such an understatement. She stood in the door way before the music started and stared at him with a huge smile on her face. The dress fit her body perfectly, a strapless A frame white dress, with red accents on the hem of the dress. The bottom of the dress opened up in a V, showing the ruffled red layer in the opening. He always loved her in red, it being a fiery and passionate color matching her personality perfectly. He loved that it was one of their wedding colors and that it was on her dress. As she walked down the aisle the dress seemed to float around her making her look ethereal.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

"LADIES AND GENTLEMAN, I have the esteemed pleasure of introducing for the first time Mr. and Mrs. Icheb and Naomi Wildman!!" Lucas yelled as they entered the room again, pumping his hands together for his best friends.

Naomi and Icheb walked back into the room they had left only five minutes before, and were shocked. It was transformed from the ceremony to a large dance floor with DJ and a huge seating area.

"Oh my…" Naomi said not knowing what to say.

"I agree, Love I agree." Icheb said, leading her to the seating area, and the large table set up in the front for the wedding party. He pulled out her chair, she laughed as she sat down, loving every moment of this day.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

It was their tenth dance of the night and everyone knew that they were not anywhere near done, they would dance for twenty or thirty more songs, taking some breaks, maybe. Faulk smiled at the young couple dancing on the floor, their love radiating off of them as they danced the night away.

"It's one of our songs…" Icheb said as they spun around the dance floor and the first cords of the song "Like I Never Loved Before" started. (GO LISTEN TO THE SONG ITS AMAZING!!)

Naomi smiled at him, "Please sing it for me, Love."

He smiled and pulled her closer to him so that they could share this moment:

"I guess I gave myself to someone  
Maybe a time or two  
I tried, I went through the motions  
What was I supposed to do  
I spun my wheels, I wasted so much time  
And then with you I finally got it right

It's like I never loved before  
Like I never saw the sun  
Or felt the rainfall on my face  
It's like it's never ever been  
I can't imagine life without you anymore  
It feels just like I never loved before

Naomi stared at him, love shining in her eyes. This was one of their unofficial songs. On their sixth month anniversary they went dancing on the holodeck and this song came on and both immediately loved it because it explained their love perfectly. They would dance to it whenever they went out and heard it, regardless of where they were or what they were doing. That same night Naomi also found out that Icheb could sing, he absently mentioned that he could sing and that his voice was a result of his Borg physiology. Naomi excitedly asked him to sing for her. He started singing Lifehouse's song, "You and Me" as they were dancing. She fell hopelessly in love with his voice and at every opportunity she asked him to sing for her. He would, of course sing for her in a moment's notice loving the elation which her obvious joy hearing him sing gave her.

I never talked about forever  
Now it's not long enough  
Who's that guy lookin' in the mirror  
Cause it's not the man I was  
I only know I tremble when we kiss  
I'm making up for everything I missed

It's like I never loved before  
Like I never saw the sun  
Or felt the rainfall on my face  
It's like it's never ever been  
I can't imagine life without you anymore  
It feels just like I never loved before

I ran around in circles  
I never knew  
I was only getting ready for you

It's like I never loved before  
Like I never saw the sun  
Or felt the rainfall on my face  
It's like it's never ever been  
I can't imagine life without you anymore  
It feels just like I never loved before"

Naomi rested her head on Icheb's chest, as "You and Me" started playing. Icheb pulled her close to him and kissed the top of her head, he knew that this was close to heaven dancing in the middle of a nebula in the beta quadrant.


	8. Lucas' Plan

HI EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!

So my muse went into bear like hibernation , she wouldnt come out for anything. But all the emotional crap is getting gone, so she is coming out. Please enjoy the next installment of After Ten years!

As always Mavfan you are amazing, and this story would not be the same without my amazing beta!!!!!!!!!!

XOXOXOXOXOXO

None of the eyes around the table was left dry after the story.

B'Elanna laughed, "Was Mr. Lucas as romantic as Icheb was?"

Naomi laughed, "See they are special, it was romantic in a Lucas and Miral kind of way. Now, I get the honor and privilege to tell you the story of the engagement of Miss Miral and Lucas."

XOXOXOXOXOXOXO

"Lucas, are you sure you really want to do this?" Naomi shook her head, "But…"

"Don't say those words I know you want to say, she won't do anything…"

Naomi just stood up and walked out of the room shaking her head at Lucas.

"Wait does that mean you'll help?"

Naomi laughed, "Maybe…" she walked out of his quarters and back into Astrometics.

Lucas ran out of his quarters, Naomi had disappeared, "AHH NAOMI." Lucas yelled as he ran to catch up to Naomi.

Lucas grabbed Naomi by the back of her shirt, "Come on sis please, please help me…"

Naomi laughed as he wrapped her in a hug, "I guess I will help you, if you take over my duty shift on my anniversary on Friday."

Lucas groaned, he didn't want to work the Friday shift, but he really needed her help, "I guess I will do that…"

"AND I get this as a bonus day…" she unwrapped herself from Lucas's arms to stare at his face.

"I guess, please make sure that she is there on time…"

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

"RED ALERT!" Faulk yelled, "EVERYONE TO BATTLE STATIONS IMMEDIATELY."

Miral and Lucas quickly scurried out of the bedroom, Miral threw a robe on over her nightgown as Lucas pulled a shirt on over his boxers. They ran out the door and found the nearest entrance to the network of crawlspaces around the ship. The crawlspace would get them to the bridge quicker, they knew that if Faulk was up at night and waking everyone up, it was something bad. Thankfully they had stayed in Miral's quarters that night, it was closer to the bridge than Lucas'.

As they moved up the crawlspace Lucas looked up and smirked, "The view is looking pretty good from where I'm standing Love."

Miral laughed, "Come on sweet talker, we are here."

As they climbed out of the crawlspace, Miral went to the ops station while Lucas hurried beside Naomi at the astro station, while Emily and Chase controlled the computers in Astrometrics.

A couple of days before they left, Naomi realized that she needed a larger department, Lucas and she could not run the department all the time. She was picky about who she hired, because they made the lab so that two people, who worked well together, could get a lot done, but it couldn't just be ran by one person. So she hired two different couples that she heard were exemplary in astrometrics but also had a partner they could work with. She hired Emily and Chase Reynolds and Elizabeth and John Tucker. And on this night, Emily and Chase had the lucky opportunity of being on night duty when the alert went up.

"Nice boxers." Naomi commented looking at Lucas' Daffy duck boxers.

He smirked, "Well you know my Miral loves um, so what can I say…" and continued looking at the screen. Their job, when on the bridge, was to become experts in the area of space and to direct the crew as the battle ensued.

Faulk started the update, "Short range scanners picked up a rogue Romulan Warbird, it matches the configuration of the rogue ship that was stolen ten months ago. I have contacted Romulus and they have asked us to disable the ship and continue on our mission after ships from Romulus have arrived. I changed course and was met with a nice message from the supposed captain of the ship telling me that if I changed course to intercept with them that I would be killed and my ship destroyed. That ship is dangerous, it has experimental equipment on it which Starfleet and the Romulan Star Empire have been working on. That ship cannot get into the rebels hands, it could spell a lot of disaster."

Miral intruded, "We are coming up on the ship."

Faulk nodded, "Power weapons."

"Weapons powered, sir" Mannif, chimed.

"Fire forward phasers at their weapons system, target their engines."

Naomi's fingers flew over the controls, she was manning the space post, while Lucas manned the sensors. They had this orchestration almost down to an art, after being in two battles. Since they had been friends for a long time, they knew mannerisms of the other person and could communicate without speaking.

"Conn, go to 114 by 67, with the ship faces backwards towards the nebula that should protect our engines." Naomi yelled out.

Michelle Talons listened carefully to what Naomi had said, her mind was focused on keeping this ship in one piece, "Aye, aye."

XOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Miral yelled across the banter, "SHUT THE HELL UP EVERYONE, what did you say Lucas?"

"The damn fleet is screwing with our sensors, you need to manually aim the phasers for Mannif. Ill be your guide, Mannif you got that?"

"Aye" Miral and Mannif confirmed. Lucas started coordinating the attack while Naomi kept the ship out of harm's way from the blasts that were coming from the Romulan ship.

Lucas yelled, "MIRAL, Mannif 111 by 308…"

The Romulan ship was disabled, the bridge crew all sagged in their places, Miral leaned on her post.

Faulk smiled, "Good job group…"

Lucas smiled at Miral and suddenly all plans he had flew out of his mind. He started walking towards Miral as a comm signal came through.

The Romulan Warbird Commander appeared on the screen, "Commander I…"

At that same moment Lucas pulled Miral in front of her station, all eyes turned to them, much to the discontent of the Romulan Commander.

He went down on one knee, "Miral I had this amazing thing planned, got Naomi, Faulk and most of the crew into it. But I looked at you standing here after this battle, your face is flushed, your adrenaline is pumping, you hair is a mess, you're standing at your station in your pajamas, sweat is pouring down your face..." he paused, pulled and opened a small box revealing a white gold, diamond and aquamarine stones set in it, "and yet, you have never looked more beautiful or so damn sexy. Miral, my love, my darling will you marry me?"

Miral laughed, "You crazy man stand up…" she pulled Lucas up to his feet, "and kiss your fiancé." She had tears in her eyes as he put the ring on her finger.

He wiped the tears that had fallen down her cheeks, and pulled her into an embrace, crashing his lips against hers.

"I love you so much." Miral smiled at Lucas when they broke from their embrace.

"Excuse me if you are done now, I was about to say we have the rogue captured." He stared at Miral and Lucas, "And congratulations." The screen went blank.

"Time to celebrate!!" Faulk yelled.

XOXOXOXOXO

What did you think? Please leave me a review!!!!!

Next chapter: more on our favorite Captain Faulk and Lucas' father returns, bumbumbumbum!!!


	9. Naomi’s Genius

Soooo school sucks, and life is busy but my muse has taken off since i started rewatching STV. I am half way done with the next chappie and SUMMER IS ONLY THREE WEEKS AWAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I should be able to write more and more!!!! Please enjoy this chappie!!!!

I wanted to thank Mavfan for her betaing of this chapter she helped make this chapter AMAZING.

I also wanted to thank Miss Amy for helping to keep my muse going, and for providing me inspiration to keep writing!!!!!!

Have a great weekend and enjoy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

B'Elanna laughed, "Oh my daughter, that sounds like you two…"

Lucas laughed, "Thanks, well I had planned this romantic chocolate and champagne dinner with dancing and other cheesy stuff. But at that moment she just looked so amazing and I just had to ask her, thank God I had the ring on me." Miral laughed.

"Oh my romantic man…" Miral said in a Scarlett O'Harae voice causing everyone at the table to laugh.

"So…" B'Elanna prompted.

"Mommy…" Lexie stared up at her mother with a huge angelic smile on her face, "Can I get some more cake?"

Naomi smiled at her daughter, "I guess, since you have been so good." Lexie's smile could have lit the sky with its brightness. Naomi continued, "Actually I'm craving some more cake myself…"

"Yea…" Lexie bounced out of her chair and grabbed her mother's hand.

Naomi turned back to the table before walking to the dessert buffet "Please excuse my beautiful daughter and I while we indulge in some chocolatey goodness. Does anyone else want anything?"

Everyone started talking at once, Icheb held up his hands, "I'll come with you Sweets and we will get one of everything, does that work for everyone?"

Icheb grabbed his wife and daughter's hands and they bounced as a family over to the dessert table, talking and giggling the entire time.

Miral smiled at her best friends, "So, Sam I found out that your daughter is like a freaken genius, I mean, I know my Naomi was smarter than hell but, geez, I think everyone was shocked at how creative she is. So I have to start this story while Miss Naomi is away because she will try to change it to make it seem like it all wasn't her idea. She is too darn modest…"

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO First year of Mission XOXOXOXOXOXOX

"REPORT!" Faulk yelled, a conduit above him busted open and hot gases started venting out of the conduit. Faulk tumbled to the floor to avoid the hot gases.

"System wide failures, breaches, on deck 3 and 4, but intruders have been dealt with and they have left. This fucking flower fought back didn't it." Miral shook her fist at the ships retreating on the view screen, "I am still getting reports from commanding officers."

"Naomi to bridge…" suddenly blared over the comm..

"Bridge here, how is it down there Naomi?" Faulk said as he walked to the console of computer displays in the back of the bridge and started evaluating the ship. Over the last couple of weeks had seen increasing numbers of Dominion ships patrolling the sector through which they had been traveling. Everything was fine until today when the aliens started attacking the ship, unprovoked and took the crew by surprise with a war

"I can't find Emily or Chase. They were supposed to be in Astro but when I called on the computer to find them it says they are in Astro. Yes their damn comm. badges are, but they are not. I tried their quarters, and no response. I don't know if they were taken by the attackers, I am slowly freaking out…"

"I am having security run a deck by deck sweep, they'll let me know in ten minutes if they find anyone in random places or any bodies lying about. Come to the bridge, all senior officers will be meeting here and we will figure out everything from here. We will find them Naomi."

"I will be there shortly" Naomi said and cut the line. She looked around her lab.

Thankfully her lab had not been affected too much by the battle. Astrometrics was buried deep in the ship, since it needed to be close to the central computer. She pushed up her sleeves, glad that her lab wasn't touched, but knowing that others weren't so lucky got ready for a long day of hard labor fixing the ship.

She walked out of Astrometrics and sighed at the damage throughout the ship. As she headed up the hallways and Jefferies tubes she could see marks from the fire fights between the Odyssey crew and the Dominion intruders. Thankfully they trained and gone through different scenarios to prepare themselves for situations like this. She took the final Jeffery tube to get to the bridge and was horrified to see how close the intruders had got to the bridge.

As she stepped over the body lying in the doorway, "This guy got close to you guys, damn." She stopped and stared at the mess the bridge was.

Faulk turned and smiled at Naomi, "They found Emily and Chase and they are fine." He and Shonan went back to repairing their CO and XO consoles so they could have their accesses to the computer systems.

Miral continued, "They helped keep the bastards at bay on deck 3, when they had broken through the force fields, keeping them in cargo bay 3. Emily said that they looked outside of Astro and saw them coming down the hallway. So they stripped off their shirts, hence the comm. badges left in Astro, grabbed their phasers and anything long and pointy and went to protect the ship. Emily is in sick bay with some broken bones, but is fine and Chase is having surgery, he tripped and tore some complicated bodily structure. Doc expects a full recovery from both by tomorrow."

Naomi listened intently to Miral's report as she started looking through the computer screens on the bridge to assess what needed to be tackled first, "Good, I was so worried they had been captured. Thank God they were being brave and protecting the ship."

xoxoxoxoxoxo

Ten hours later, the Senior officers gathered in the heavily battered conference room. They gave updates on the ship systems and on the status of the repairs.

As the meeting started winding down Naomi nodded to Faulk, "I wanted to bring up the old system of finding people on our ship. I know that everyone, myself especially, has been frustrated with the current system. We are in the 24th century why are we still using this backwards system of a comm. badge locating system? This attack really brought this point home, so I want to propose that we start working on a system that locates us based on our bodies and our actual matter and not by something we can take off at anytime. This attack really brought this point home." Naomi finished and waited.

Faulk nodded, "I want you to make this a priority; we need to be living in the 24th century. And if we run into more battles like this, we are going to need to be able to find our people immediately. Naomi you take the lead on this project, use whatever resources you need and get this done as soon as possible. Now we will have another meeting tomorrow, same time, same place" he smiled at the end.

Before everyone got up to leave Naomi said, "Doc can you let me know when you would be available to consult on the system?"

Dr. Martin Fancsis looked down at his logs, "I have to do 2 more surgeries then I will be free as a bird. Thankfully we didn't have a lot of injuries. Where do you want me to meet you?"

Naomi grabbed Miral's arm before she could leave, "Contact me when you are done, I don't know where we will be. Thanks Doc…"

"So you ask the Doc but you just grab my arm expecting me to just come" she sighed but then smiled at her best friend, "Just feel that love."

"Miral with all your greatness and genius can I get some, just a tiny bit, of help?" Naomi brought her hands together looking like she was begging Miral.

Miral slapped Naomi, "Of course doll face, I am the Chief Operations Manager." She smiled at her, "So lets go to your quarters we can pull up schematics of the ship and start figuring it out."

As they walked the halls back down to Naomi's room, Naomi told Miral the ideas she had started coming up with over the last day since the attack ended.

xoxoxoxoxoxo

"So this system will do a DNA scan?"

"Yes, a ship wide scan using the Astrometrics sensors. Miral, Doc and I have worked for the last fourteen hours to come up with a system that we could implement on our ship effectively. In front of you are the specs for it and a version that Starfleet could implement on most ships in the fleet, which will get sent back on our nodule." Naomi paused while everyone looked over the schematics.

Every year, they sent back all of the important data they had taken in nodules that were encoded for Starfleet. They knew it may take a while for them to reach Starfleet or they may never reach them. It was a way for the crew to get important scientific findings back to Starfleet. They had been tested in the Gamma Quadrant, using the Bolian wormhole near DS9 to see if a nodule could reach Starfleet from long distances.

Faulk smiled as he finished reading the specs, thinking that it was such a simple solution, once the technical details were worked out. He looked up at Naomi, and smiled at her.

"As a default mode it will perform these scans every hour and compare it to a database of everyone on board the ship. This will give us extra security so that we always know who is on board. This will also give us the added bonus that if an intruder enters the ship we will be warned first thing. Even if they try to blend in with the crew the computer will be able to find them because their DNA is different." She caught her breath and continued on, "We have tested the system for the last two hours and everything has been running within standards."

"Naomi, this system seems like it should work." Faulk said bluntly, "I hope we never truly have to test it for what it is worth but, alas this is a long journey and I feel that your system will be put to great use. Alright everyone, brief your departments and let them know about the system. I want everyone trained to use it as soon as possible. Alright, if no one has anything else to say I will be joining Miral for a rousing game of hover ball." Everyone knew that that was the cue to exit so the senior staff started getting up to exit the room.

Naomi smiled at Miral and the Doctor, she had been so proud that the system worked. She yawned and started picking up her data pads and other materials. Icheb sighed at Naomi, he knew that she had not been to sleep in the last twenty-four hours and it was starting to catch up with her.

Icheb stood up and walked around the table and grabbed the stack of data pads from Naomi's hands, and rested his hand on her back, "Yes this system is quite ingenious but how much sleep has our resident genius had?"

Faulk stopped and turned and smiled at the couple, "Naomi, take the rest of the day off and relax." He winked at Icheb, whom he knew had the rest of the afternoon off.

"Well since you have been ordered to relax, I think that we should put these pads away and go back to my quarters." Naomi raised her eye brows suggestively at Icheb, who turned her towards the door and whispered in her ear, "Now, now, that's not relaxing Miss Naomi, but I am open for suggestions."

Naomi laughed, and grabbed his hand as they walked across the bridge to the turbolift.

XOXOXOXOXOXO End Flash Back XOXOXOXOXOXO

Naomi sighed, "Miral, you didn't say anything about what you and the doctor…"

Icheb, Lucas and Miral all stared glared at her, immediately silencing her. After a brief second of silence, they all burst out laughing, Miral smiled, "Miss Naomi is very humble but let me tell you that system came in handy so many times. It helped save our lives on more occasions then I can count."

Janeway laughed, "When we got that data stream we were excited at the idea of it, it had been an issue plaguing us for a while. We have been perfecting your idea and now it has been installed on every ship in the fleet. Actually, you and your team will be receiving commendation from Starfleet."

Naomi smiled, "See Miral, even they recognize it's not just me that came up with the idea…" she stuck her tongue out at Miral.

Lexie giggled at her mother, Naomi smiled at her daughter, "Mommy your acting crazy."

Naomi laughed, "Yes love, I am acting crazy but that's because I am happy to see our families…"

Lexie smiled, "Me too mamma." She smiled and happily continued eating her chocolate cake.

Samantha smiled at her daughter and granddaughter, she grabbed Gresk's hand under the table and rested her head on his shoulder.

Icheb smiled at his parent-in-laws, "It sure came in handy when we helped Korok and the other Borg rebels destroy the second transwarp conduit."

Everyone stared at Icheb in amazement except for Admiral Janeway who had read about it in the nodule of information sent back last year.

He smiled, "Well let me start at the beginning."

XOXOXOXOXOXO

Please let me know what you think by leaving me a lovely review!!!!


	10. The Borg Rebellion

Sorry for not updating, my must needed inspiration and she wasn't finding it. And yea I am on break so my muse had a chance to think and create .

MANY THANKS to KageOkami-Kogo for inspiring my muse to start writing again. If you get a chance you should read the story Irrelevance it is awesome !!!!!

Amy darling thank you for your help on the fic!!!

And now with the story!

XOXOXOXOXOX Last time OXOXOXOXOXOXO

Icheb smiled at his parent-in-laws, "It sure came in handy when we helped Korok and the other Borg rebels destroy the second transwarp conduit."

Everyone stared at Icheb in amazement except for Admiral Janeway who had read about it in the nodule of information sent back last year.

He smiled, "Well let me start at the beginning."

XOXOXOXOXOXO 5th year of Journey XOXOXOXOXOXO

"Naomi Wildman…" rang over the intercom system.

Naomi lifted her head from Icheb's chest and grumbled, "What?"

"It's eight oclock in the morning missy why are you still asleep?" Miral's voice resounded throughout the room.

Icheb grumbled, pulled his arms around his wife, to keep her by his side as he turned on his back. Naomi smiled content to continue using her husband as a pillow. The beating of his heart lulled her into almost forgetting that Miral had commed in.

"We have the day off, now go away my dearest friend." Icheb grumbled.

"Fine, have fun love birds. I wanted to let you know that those transwarp signatures we saw last night haven't reappeared as of yet. We will keep an eye on them. I asked Emily this morning to run some Astro scans for me, hope you don't mind me monopolizing your workers time. Have fun!"

"That's fine Miral. Also have them also scan for neutrino emissions with the transwarp scans. Bye." Naomi sighed, closed her eyes, and intertwined her fingers with Icheb's and welcomed wonderful sleep.

Icheb ran his free hand over her shoulder and down her back, Naomi snuggled into his chest. Every day he thanked the sprits that this beautiful woman chose him.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

"SHIT." Miral exclaimed.

Faulk turned around and stared at her, "What is going on M&M?"

Faulk came up with nicknames for all of his crew. He felt close to his team, after being with them for five years and wanted to integrate them into his family. Almost every person who had ever served with Faulk, for any extended period of time had a nickname. His terms of endearment made everyone feel loved and special on his ship.

Miral's fingers flew over the consol, "SHIT, a transwarp conduit is opening right behind us. I thought they were gone."

Faulk stood up and ran to the consol while Shonan opened the comm. system, "Report to battle stations, a transwarp conduit is opening."

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

"Miral report." Faulk.

"They hit our deflector and damn it…" Miral cursed as her fingers flew across her counsel.

"They just took out our aft phaser bank. And the damn computer is not responding, I am switching to manual…" Mannif slammed his hand against the consol, "Shields are at 68% and dropping…"

"Mannif head towards the cluster of stars near 15 by 45…" Naomi inputted, her fingers flying across the screens at the back of the bridge.

"Engineering to bridge, we are fixing the phaser banks but I need to keep the shields up. I've called in everyone I can but I need Miral's skills to keep these damn shields up, they are changing the frequency of their pulses and its wreaking havoc on our systems…"

"Icheb I can do it, pass controls from engineering to ops, and I will keep an eye on that…" Miral's hands flew over the consol trying to get a handle on the problem they were having.

"Grab Emily from Astro she can help you with the phasers." Naomi said before he went off the comm. system.

"Thanks Love, Icheb out."

"Alright Miral…" Naomi stopped talking, shocked at the readings appearing on her screen.

"What the hell is that, Naomi are you seeing what I am?"

"God what the hell did we do to karma, another fucking transwarp conduit opened up off our port bow. Damn it another sphere is coming to join the fight."

Faulk went into overdrive combat mode, "Naomi position us so our engines…"

"Faulk we are receiving communication from the sphere that just came out…" Miral interrupted, Faulk nodded towards her to continue.

"General Korok to Federation Ship, after I fire you need to hit their shield generator. My blast should be enough to compromise their shields for a minute." General Korok yelled as another blast shook his ship.

Everyone on the bridge was stunned to silence, "Federation ship do you copy?" Korok inquired.

The minute she head that name, Naomi sprung to answer, "Yes Korok we will fire whenever you do." The communications channel cut out, "Faulk you have to trust me, fire when he does. They are on our side."

Faulk cocked his head but nodded to Mannif, "Do as she says."

It was a surreal sight watching one Borg ship attack another, one that all but two on the ship had never seen before. As they fired at the Borg ship, Mannif sent a concentrated blast at the shield generators, trusting Naomi.

The first Borg sphere's shields fell and within seconds it blew apart. It was a surreal experience for the entire crew.

"Korok to Federation Ship" suddenly blared on the intercom.

"Captain Faulk here. Thank you for coming to our aid. Now can you please explain what the hell is going on…"

"If you will permit me to come aboard Captain I can explain everything. Let me reassure you, neither my crew nor myself are in league with the Borg. We are a part of the Unimatrix Rebellion and we have a proposition for you."

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

"You want to destroy a transwarp hub?" Miral asked in amazement at the Klingon sitting in front of her.

General Korok smiled, "Yes… and Miss Miral I can assure you we are not as crazy as you think we are. Two months ago we encountered a Borg transmission, their communications has not been the same since the Unicomplex was destroyed by Voyager. Scatterings of messages intended for Collective Borg ships have been sent to Rebellion ships. We found out that the transwarp hub that is ten light years away has not been reconnected to the Collective. It is extremely vulnerable with only a scattering of Borg ships protecting it. The transmission said that in two weeks time it will be reconnected to the Collective. For the last two months we have been gathering every ship we can find who will help us. Mostly Liberated Borg but we have found other species that are willing to help us. We do not want the Borg to get back this area, more worlds will continue to fall under their terror. Will you be willing to join us in battle?"

Faulk smiled, "We would be honored General."

And with that a ten hour battle preparation meeting began.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

The meeting finally ended, all Senior Officers had information to prepare for the battle. They would be working around the clock to get Odyssey

"Naomi…" Korok asked in amazement, he was not expecting to see her out here in the Beta quadrant.

Naomi moved across the table quickly and hugged the General. He embraced the young girl he once knew and mentored. Some of the Rebellion ships stayed with Voyager for a while after they had been set free from the Borg to repair their ships and remove as much of the Borg implants as possible. Naomi and the four Borg children had been given the chance to spend time with the Rebellion members. Icheb fondly remembered those times when they were allowed to ask questions, run around the ship and help them rebuild areas of the Rebellion ships. He remembered that Naomi spent a lot of time aboard the ships learning from the General himself. He smiled as his wife caught up with her mentor.

She smiled at her mentor, even if he was just that for a few months of her young life. She sat down next to him with a huge smile on her face. Naomi was very thankful for this experience and had become close to Korok. He took a special interest in the budding leader he saw in her and wanted to share his advice. Little did Naomi know that that experience gave Korok a chance to feel normal again. Here was this little girl, who should be terrified by the sight of a Borg but she wasn't. She didn't even seem to notice the Borg implants, or the radical changes he went through as the implants were removed. She just wanted to keep him company and help him through this change. She visited him while he was in sick bay, read him stories and when he was released showed him to his new set of quarters that she had put together for him on his ship. They stayed by Voyagers side for a few months before taking off to find more Rebellion members.

"Its great to see you again General." Naomi said with a huge smile on her face.

"What a small universe this truly is. The one Federation ship I find in the Beta quadrant has my Assistant on it. Oh how truly lucky I am."

Naomi laughed, she had become Korok assistant while he was getting his ship together. She remembered the day when Captain Janeway called her into her ready room to have a serious discussion with her.

xoxoxoxo Voyager Flashback xoxoxoxoxo

Captain Janeway smiled as her bright young Assistant walked into the room, "Naomi thank you for coming to see me today."

Naomi smiled at the Captain, "It is never a problem Captain." In her child exuberance all manners flew out the window as she sat down next to the Captain and started telling her about her day, "General Korok went in for his spine implant removal today. Doc says it is going to be a couple of days before he can move on his own." She sighed, "I hope he does okay, the Doctor says he is going to be fine…"

Janeway patted her on the shoulder, "Then I am sure he is going to be fine, you know the Doctor wouldn't lie to you about this." Naomi smiled at the Captain who continued, "Naomi I wanted to talk to you about something pretty serious."

Naomi sat up straight and fixed her shirt, wanting to look presentable, "The Borg ships are going to be with us for a while. I am expecting General Korok's ship to be with us for at least another three months. I need someone who I can trust to be my liaison to him and to help him."

Naomi's eyes brightened at her suggestion, "Captain Janeway I would like to do that. I have read the Starfleet regulations manual twice, I have been assisting you for a year now and I really want to spend more time helping him." All of it came out in a rush.

Captain Janeway grabbed Naomi's hand as she stood up, "Naomi Wildman, I hereby task you with the duty of Assistant to General Korok and the liaison between myself and the Borg rebellion."

Naomi's expression brightened as she placed an ambassador pip on her collar, she ran her fingers over the emblem.

"I have discussed this with General Korok and he will be expecting you to report to him."

"Yes Captain." Naomi stood straight, and with honor at the new position she had been given.

Janeway got down on her knee and hugged Naomi, "Congratulations. Now I have an idea of something we could do for the General that would make his day when he gets out of the Doctors grasp. We should make him his own ready room, so he feels like a real Commander of his vessel.

xoxoxoxo End of flashback xoxoxoxoxo

Korok held Naomi's hand in his, happy to be reunited with his former Assistant, "By the way that room is still just as perfect as the day you and Janeway showed it to me."

He had been completely shocked the day after his spine implant removal when he saw his ready room and his living quarters completely redone. He was amazed at the work the women had put into his living areas. He always cherished the work they put into his room but most of all the bat'leth that had his name engraved in the hilt with a heart below it with NW in the middle. It held a place of honor for the General, she touched his heart and he would never forget her. His heart filled with joy seeing her again.

"Wow you grew up… so much" they laughed at that comment, "How have things been since the return of Voyager? How has Starfleet been? You must tell me everything. Lets go to my ship and I can show you the improvements we have made to it." He said in excitement at seeing Naomi again.

Naomi wanted to reminisce with her mentor but she first had a duty to get her crew working on the modifications, "General can we meet you there in an hour? I want to get my crew working on the modifications and star charts we need to make for the battle."

Korok stood up and patted her on the shoulder, "I told you, you would make an excellent commander one day. How about this, meet me at 1800 hours for dinner and catch up."

"Do you mind if my husband joins us?" Naomi pointed to Icheb.

Korok smiled at the two, he saw their chemistry when they were younger and was glad his mentee found love.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

"Lucas please be serious…" Naomi snapped at Lucas' offhand comment. She wanted to get the modifications done as soon as possible.

Lucas threw his hands in defeat, "I was just joking Naomi…" he walked over to his best friend and put his arm around her, "Whats wrong hun you have been acting strange all day?"

Naomi rested her head on his shoulder and sighed, "Sorry I keep snapping at you Lucas. I don't know what is going on with me today." Tears started falling down her cheeks, "What the hell and now I'm crying… god…"

Lucas wiped the tears off her cheeks. He chocked his head to the side in confusion, Naomi typically didn't just start crying for no reason. He then felt her forehead to check her temperature worried that she may be sick.

"You need to go see Dr. Fancsis your head is burning up."

Naomi reached up and felt her forehead, "It's not that warm dude, my body temperature is warmer than humans." She smiled at her friend.

Lucas smiled, "Okay well then no more crying… you know me I am useless when girls cry." Naomi laughed, "Ha see I got you smiling again. Now we should get back to work."

Naomi wiped the remaining tears from her cheeks, and sighed, "alright the sooner we get this done the sooner we can leave."

They went back to work mapping out the area of space they would be fighting the Borg. It was an area that Lucas had more experience at than Naomi, as he was the Beta quadrant aficionado. Naomi was to do all of the detail work once Lucas cordoned off an area on the star map.

Most people who watched them work would wonder what they were doing and how they were doing it so fast. Their movements were in sync and fluid. They didn't have to talk once they got started working on mapping an area. Naomi attributed this to their days back in Academy when they used to race each other in the Star Trials. This was a tradition they started two years into Academy. It spread like wildfire from a small competition between friends to a biannual event. Teams from around the academy competed to see who could map a random area of the Alpha quadrant the fastest. Because of the Astrometrics department there was a separate category for Astrogeeks, it was random areas of all known areas of all four quadrants. Naomi and Lucas dominated this area of the competition until their senior year when a new pair of Astrogeeks stole the crown. They were happy to pass the crown to new first years to continue the tradition.

The reason why Naomi and Lucas worked so well together and dominated the competition was because Naomi knew the Delta and Alpha quadrants like the back of her hand as Lucas knew the Beta and Gamma quadrants. They would task the knowledgeable one with cordoning the area and the other with the details of mapping. It was a system that worked well and it helped them immensely while running the Astrometrics department.

Naomi finished the last scaling on the map and saved the file to two separate areas of the computer, "Finally."

Lucas sighed, "I am off to find my significant other and get some sleep. Tomorrow should be an interesting day. You have dinner with the General don't you?"

With a smile on her face she nodded and followed Lucas out of their department. She bid him farewell as she headed to engineering to find Icheb.

She was whistling as she walked into the turbolift, she commanded it to go to engineering.

Naomi was suddenly thrown against the other side of the turbolift as a blast coursed through the ship.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

"All hands report to battle stations immediately." Faulk yelled as a Borg ship appeared out of nowhere and started firing on Odyssey.

Mannif yelled, "Shields took a major hit with that one. Odyssey to Korok, we need assistance they are trying to take down our field generator." His hands flew over the counsel as he tried to damage the sphere.

"We are taking them down Odyssey but your generator is not going to last this fight. Take refuge in General Axum's ship, and start making repairs. We need you ready to fight tomorrow. Korok out" He silenced the communications.

Before Faulk could give the order their generator gave out, "Get us in the ship before any Borg beam aboard."

"Aye aye Captain." Michelle said.

"Miral find all crew members now and search for intruders."

Miral's hands flew over her screen as she worked the controls of the CMF, so creatively named the Crew Member Finder. The computer quickly sifted through the data and brought up a list of crewmen that were not in frequently trafficked areas of the ship and went over those people's vitals.

The computer sent a message to all computer monitors on the ship and opened a comm. line to make an announcement, "Look at the closest computer monitor to you, if you are in any of the following areas please assist in the finding the following crew members…" it continued to read off areas of the ship and crewmembers who were there. Miral's eyes scanned down the list and her heart dropped as the computer read off the last name, "Naomi Wildman is in turbolift two and unconscious. Intruder alert in turbolift two."

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo


	11. The Intruder

My muse is on a roll now and is excited to write these parts!!! I hope you enjoy this chapter!!

Lots of thanks to Amy for her help with the story!!!

Please leave a review!!!!

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Icheb's heart dropped as he heard the message ring through engineering. He ran to his computer monitor and rushed to find where turbolift two was stuck. Horrifying scenarios flew through his mind, 'Oh god a Borg is in there and she is unconscious'. Icheb stopped as that thought passed through his mind. His mind raced with all of the things that could be happening to his wife, feeling out of control.

Emily, who had been assisting him in engineering at the time, ran over to the now frantic Icheb. She saw him stop in his tracks and start freaking out. She rushed to his side and frantically tried to figure out where she was. He was making a lot of mistakes and flipping to the wrong screens in his frantic search. She pushed him to the side and managed the screen.

She finally found where Naomi was and turned to Icheb, "Icheb its stuck right below engineering. We can get to her, we just need to get in the top hatch."

Icheb had already taken off running towards the supply cabinet. He grabbed two phasers and an engineering tool kit just in case he had to pry his way in the lift. All of the engineering personnel moved towards the entrance to the Jefferies tube. They opened the Jeffery tube and Icheb rushed in. Emily grabbed a medical kit before she followed Icheb into the tube.

Once the door was open enough Crewman Jeffry and Icheb slid on top of the turbolift. Icheb thanked the stars that the lift stalled where it did. Jeffry walked around to the manhole and tried to open it.

"Error the turbolift in safe mode."

Icheb yelled, "Override all defaults Icheb Nu-Alpha-Omega-Mu-Iota."

"Error rank insufficient to override defaults."

"FAULK you…"

His voice rang over the intercom, "Override all defaults you fucking computer, Faulk Pi Iota Nu Gamma."

"Defaults overridden."

Jeffry threw open the cover and Icheb pulled out his phaser, he handed one to Jeffry who was already holding a flashlight to illuminate the lift, "Watch my back."

"Always sir." Jeffry crouched over the tube and as Icheb climbed in lit the way.

Icheb landed on the floor and spun around searching for the intruder. He circled around again when he found no one he exclaimed, "What the hell, there is no intruder." He moved to his wife's side, "Someone throw me a med…"

"Incoming Sir." Jeffry yelled.

Emily dropped into the Jeffries tube and dropped to the floor opening the medical kit.

Icheb went from battle mode to devoted and confused husband, as Emily ran the tricorder over her, "She has a mild concussion and a broken leg…" Emily's tricorder gave her a strange reading but as she was an Astrometrics person with a little bit of frist aide skills she didn't understand it, "and something else, but I don't know waht. Reynolds to transporter room 1 are you operational?"

Lieutenant Ayalla chimed back, "Yes mam we are."

"Icheb pick up Naomi." Once he picked her up, "Ayalla, three to beam out of turbolift two to Sickbay." She ordered.

Icheb rushed Naomi to a bed,___Dr. Martin Fancsis ran over to her side, tricorder out and scanning, "We found her on the turbolift unconscious. I think she knocked her head against the wall, I saw some blood spatter on there." Icheb's voice gave out at the end from the worry._

___Emily pulled Icheb from Naomi's side, to let the doctor do his work. He turned to Emily with a grateful smile, "Thank you."_

___Emily patted him on the shoulder, "Not a problem. There was no intruder on the turbolift, I wonder why the system said there was."_

___Icheb's heart rate slowly dropped as he watched the doctor heal her broken leg and her other injuries, "No and I can't figure out why…" he rushed back over to Naomi's side as the Doctor woke her up._

___Faulk walked into Sickbay as Icheb joined Naomi's side, "Icheb what happened?" he saw Naomi start waking up and moved to her side, "How are you doing?"_

___Naomi was confused. She did not know how she ended up in sick bay or why her head felt like a jackhammer was pounding into it. She moved to sit up and made it about half way up when a lance of pain shot through her head "My head…" she started to fall back._

___Icheb caught Naomi before she fell backwards. He eased her back on the bed as she groaned in pain. _

___Dr. Francis moved to her side, "I am going to give you something for the pain that help heal that concussion." He said before he injected the medicine in her. Her face and body instantly relaxed, Icheb reached for her hand and caressed it as the Doctor continued._

_"__Your head is going to be just fine. Some rest tonight will be the trick to it healing Mrs. Wildman. Now…" Faulk started to speak but the Doctor cut him off; "I will explain the situation to everyone if you don't mind Captain?"_

___She sighed in relief that the pounding in her head was gone, "What happened?"_

"The ship was attacked by a Borg vessel. You were jostled about the turbolift and were knocked unconscious. The reason why your husband and Captain are here looking panicked is that the CMF said there was an intruder with you on the turbolift. There was no intruder." He stopped and let it sink in.

"How do you know that?" Icheb asked with much skepticism, he had seen many different types of intruders during his time in Starfleet. They had run into invisible enemies before. What if the enemy left the turbolift after getting aboard, there could be an intruder in the ship this instant and Doc wanted to chat, he was frustrated.

Fancsis smiled at Icheb's frustration, he knew in a minute it would turn into excitement. He laid a hand on Icheb's shoulder, "Icheb, it didn't recognize the DNA because it was a mix of Naomi and your…"

Naomi sat up and stared at the Doctor, "You mean…"

"A baby…" was all Icheb got out, he turned and stared at Naomi.

Naomi couldn't believe what the doctor just said. She reached for Icheb needing someone to anchor her while she comprehended the news.

Icheb reached up and caressed her face. The loving look on his eyes reassured her and filled her heart with joy, "A baby…" she said… her voice breaking at the end as tears came out.

Icheb moved to the bed and pulled his wife into his embrace, tears falling down his cheeks.

Faulk smiled at the couple and turned to Dr. Francis, "Thanks Doc for the wonderful news. I will take care of the rest of preparations in Engineering and all of the preparations for Astro are done. Please tell these two to go back to their quarters for the night and digest this information. We are going to celebrate like crazy when tomorrow's mission is a success."

Francis nodded to Faulk as he left Sick Bay and turned to his patient. He left the couple alone for a few minutes to let the news sink in. He walked back in the room and found Naomi, still wrapped in her husband's embrace, staring back at him. He smiled at his difficult patient. He was warned by Dr. Joe from Voyager that Naomi was a feisty one when her medical files were transferred from Starfleet.

Naomi looked over at the Doctor, tears still shone in her eyes as he started, "Captain said you two should go back to your quarters for the night. He is going to finish getting engineering prepped for Icheb." Icheb nodded at this, his mind was so far away from everything that was going on, "Naomi your left leg may be a bit sore for a while and you need to rest tonight for that head injury to go away. I expect to see you here on Monday at 0900 to start mapping things out for this miracle."

Naomi nodded at the doctor, Icheb reached his arm around and pulled Naomi into his arms as he moved off of the exam table. Not expecting this Naomi yelped, Doc smiled at Icheb's gesture.

As she wrapped her arms around his neck and Icheb moved towards the door she complained, "Now Doc please tell my husband I am not an invalid…"

Knowing that Naomi was thoroughly enjoying this affection, Francis added, "Isnt it fun being swept off your feet by a dashing man."

Naomi smiled back at the doctor as they walked out of sickbay, "My dashing man." She winked at Francis as the doors closed.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Naomi moved behind Icheb and wrapped her arms around her husband, resting her head on his shoulder. He had not said a word since they left sickbay. She could tell that he was still processing the news they had been told. Naomi smiled at the intimate knowledge that she had learned about Icheb. Little things like when he was thinking about something his mind would wander and he could wander about things for hours on end. Naomi had seen him do this when he was trying to figure out a complex problem. He would go into his own little world and the only person who would bring him out of his world was Naomi. Icheb shook his head, trying get a handle of the emotions running through his head.

"Hey you." Naomi kissed his cheek.

"Hey you." He breathed out a sigh of relief, "I was so terrified today… I couldn't think straight when I heard that you were in that turbolift with an intruder." Icheb stopped.

Once minute Naomi was sitting on her knees on their bed holding her husband, the next thing she knew he had turned to sit fully on the bed and pulled her into his embrace. Naomi wrapped her arms around Icheb and leaned into his embrace, resting her head on his chest.

Naomi smiled at Icheb and waited for him to continue, "Emily was my saving grace, I forgot everything except finding and protecting you." He caressed her cheek as he continued, staring into her eyes, "I found you alone on that turbolift and I couldn't think of what to do, Emily jumped into action and beamed us to Sickbay…" he stopped and tried to regain his composure.

Naomi smiled at Icheb, giving him the strength to continue, "and then I come to find that you were not in danger but in fact your brilliant finder system detected that we were going to have a baby…" Icheb's words caught in the back of his throat.

"Scary isn't it…" she let out a nervous laugh, her emotions catching her between happy and scared.

"Scary and mind boggling yet fantastic, exhilarating and absolutely amazing my beautiful Naomi." He leaned forward and kissed her trying to reassure her as she had just done for him.

Naomi broke the kiss and rested her forehead against Icheb's, "I…"

"I know my Love you cant even put words to what you are feeling right now. Thankfully we have nine months to get those words out."

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Samantha smiled at her daughter and son-in-law's expression as they remembered that day, "So you didn't tell anyone that morning before the battle?"

Naomi laughed, "Well we decided we wanted to keep the news to ourselves for a little while. We also didn't want to distract anyone from the battle that was fast approaching…"

Miral chimed in, "But I could tell that something was up between the two of them. That day… well let me tell the story of the great battle and even greater party afterwards."

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

And next chapter: THE BORG BATTLE!!!!!!!!!!

Please leave a review!!!!!!!


	12. Borg Battle and Explosions!

Hey my awesome readers!

I am all moved into my new place and have a full time "real world" job! Now that my muse is settled she is getting all ready to keep writing!

Hope you enjoy the chap!

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

"Hi little baby boy or girl, I am your daddy. Now I know if your mommy was awake she would think I was crazy for talking to her stomach. Medically, I know that you don't have ears right now but I don't care. I am going to talk to you every day for the next 9 months. I want you to know your daddy's voice and know how much I care and love you. And of course I want to see the silly look on your mommy's face…"

Naomi awoke to find her nightgown raised up and Icheb about an inch from her stomach, he continued, "Now little baby today we are battling some people. I am scared, now more than ever. I just found out about you and I don't want to lose you or your mommy. But my love, we are explorers, your mommy and I… and you will be one too. I hate the danger it puts us in but we can and do so much with our job." He cleared his throat in and in the voice of Zefram Cochrane, "We explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before," he laughed at the end and caressed her stomach, "Your life maybe crazy and things may be insane at times but we will always love you little baby."

She didn't want to ruin this moment but couldn't stop the tears that were streaking down her cheeks and was trying to stop the sob that was forming in her throat. But his last words made her over sensitive emotions boil up and sob finally came rushing out.

Naomi's sob and tears shocked Icheb. He looked up and saw her eyes open and tears pouring down her cheeks. He immediately moved to her side and pulled her into a hug, "Oh my Love what is wrong? I am sorry if I…"

"Its… not that…" Naomi tried to comfort him. She hiccupped as she tried to get her tears under control, "I woke up when you started talking to our baby…" she wiped the tears away from her cheeks and stared into his eyes trying to convey what she was feeling, "and everything you said made my emotions crazy. You just…" she got frustrated at her lack of words and sighed, "I love you… you crazy man."

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

"M&M ops ready? Sweetpea astro ready? MK tactical ready? Iman engineering ready? Francsis triage ready? TIME you ready to fly?" Faulk waited for responses before asking the next commander.

"Yes sir's" resounded through the bridge.

Every commanding officer was on the bridge manning their stations with open comms to their respective departments.

Naomi and Lucas stood with their backs to the view screen, their eyes glued to the panel. The night before the attack Lucas and Naomi explored and mapped the area of space around the transwarp conduit. They mapped everything, even little minute details that no one but intense astrogeeks would notice. Naomi and Lucas' motto was no detail is too small.

Naomi grabbed Lucas' hand and stared at her best friend, "Lucas I want you to map out the complete transwarp network with entrance and exit apertures. Last night it wasn't as important but I have a feeling it may be."

Lucas gave her a look, "Why hun?"

"Just in case…" Naomi smiled at him, "you always need a backup plan."

"Amen to that hun." Lucas started routing the network focusing on entrance and exit apertures near their location.

"Korok are you ready to get this show on the road?" Faulk said as he opened a channel to the Rebel Alliance Ship.

"Korok here and yes Captain we are ready to go. First wave form behind Odyssey, second wave form behind me. Faulk lets do this."

Faulk thought back to the battle planning session before he gave the signal.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo the night before xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

"You have to be kidding me… you actually created a dispersal torpedo." Miral exclaimed.

Korok laughed, "Well Miss we call it a helical torpedo. And we spent the last ten years creating it. After Voyager destroyed the first transwarp hub we, the Rebellion Alliance, had a way to get back at the Borg… we finally had a mission. We studied everything that Voyager did to destroy the web. Seven and I spoke often about the destruction. During the chaos that ensued after its ruin we studied the other transwarp hubs in detail. We then spent the next five years experimenting and running scenarios looking at the best and most effective way to destroy them. The weapon will work I promise you…" he smiled at them knowing the next information would shock them, "We developed and tested it as we destroyed two more of the Borg transwarp hubs. We finally have the weapon perfected and after we destroy all of the transwarp hubs we will destroy the technology. It is dangerous and in the wrong hands it could wreak so much havoc."

Faulk nodded at the noble fight they were embarking on, "So we are going to cripple the one major advantage the Borg have over us… they will be stuck to warp speeds and wont be able to jump in and out after attacking. Well Korok that sounds great, now explain to us how to use it in battle."

Korok smiled bringing up a video of the destruction of the last transwarp hub. They watched as a first wave of ships went into the nebula. They disabled as many of the Borg ships as they could while the second wave waited outside the nebula. Once there was a clear path to the aperture the second wave would move in, protecting the torpedo shuttle craft. The first wave moved out of the nebula as the second moved in. The attacked sequence was initiated and the second wave moved out of the nebula. The shuttle was on a collision course with the entrance aperture of transwarp hub. There was a collective gasp as the torpedo went into the aperture. It started vaporizing the aperture entrance and the explosion moved into and out of the nebula. It looked like a purple, blue and red fireball roar through a tunnel. It took out the remaining Borg ships and the nebula exploded in a bright fireball of colors.

"Lets get to planning this." Faulk said with a huge grin on his face.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo Present xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

"TIME lets get this going, Faulk to all ships follow pattern zeta Naomi five." Faulk signaled to Mychelle, the flight controller.

"Aye aye Captain." Her fingers flew over the panel as the first wave moved toward the nebula.

During times like these Faulk was glad he had a good working flight and astro team.

Mychelle suggested in the first year of the journey that they needed a better way to navigate the unchartered space that they would be going through. Since they had an excellent astro team, Faulk asked them to work on this issue and make a better system. He was open to trying new things and in this instance their collaboration worked fantastically.

The system they eventually came up with was a surprisingly simple solution. Astro would continue to map out the area of space they were heading into, a daily job for the department. They would send that information to the bridge in the morning, but it would be neither ops nor the flight controller's job to analyze it and make corrections. One or two astro members were always stationed on the bridge to look at the information and reassess the space they were entering. They would then use that information to assist to help the flight controller make course corrections and avoid anomalies. Mychelle and Naomi worked like a seamless team, having perfected the system together.

"Naomi you read the other ships." Mychelle asked through the intercom between the stations.

"I have all ten ships with us and fifteen Borg ships heading straight for us." She turned and smiled at Faulk, giving him a thumbs up, "Okay Captain you are set… lets get this show on the road."

Faulk coordinated the battle with such precision and calm that would have scared new people. In fact it had scared most of the bridge crew on their first year. He was very calm on the bridge, even during a crisis. They eventually learned that Faulk spent most of the day before a battle and on a weekly basis going through battle scenarios. He ran scenarios on the holodeck and on his computer to see how he would react. He had his computer make up random, farfetched situations that in a million chances wouldn't happen. This combined with his photographic memory made him quietly confident when going into battles. Yet not in an obnoxious way, simply assertive, gaining great respect from his team.

The night before, after checking on Naomi and making sure all of the repairs were made to the ship, he studied everything he could for the battle. He went over the Rebel Alliances videos and scenarios of the destruction of the last two transwarp hubs. He read through Voyagers accounts on the destruction and the technical documents on the helical torpedo. He studied the Borg and their fighting techniques in all of the situations with the transwarp hubs. Then he came up with different plans in his mind as to how the battle could go. But as every great warrior knows plans change with the first attack. He had so many different scenarios created and thought out that he could act without making a big deal about it.

As Odyssey led the task force near the nebula they took out two ships. One of their ships was hit but not enough to stop the attack. They moved into the nebula and took out two more Borg ships. The already damaged ship broke off from the attack, taking on too much damage. Thankfully the nine other ships had not taken any damage and they continued to clear the way for the second wave which started moving towards the nebula.

Suddenly they broke off into two formations and attacked the Borg ships. The first formation, that Korok's second in command Axum led, backed off and went after a formation of six ships while Faulk's chased the other four ships deeper into the Nebula.

The surreal sight of the transwarp hub amazed Odyssey's crew. They wanted to stare at it for an eternity; it was a sight they would never forget. But they kept their focus on the battle as they moved deeper into the Nebula, breaking formation and attacking individual Borg ships.

Axum's group destroyed their group of Borg ships and moved out of the nebula as planned. The second wave moved into the nebula with the torpedo ship in the middle of the formation. The other group destroyed their targets and started moving out of the nebula. Odyssey headed further into the Nebula chasing a ship that was heading for the torpedo aperture.

Odyssey moved towards their final Borg target but was bombarded by torpedoes from another ship that suddenly appeared on the sensors.

Naomi cursed, "One ship came through an aperture, damn it!" Naomi got the new information to Mychelle, trying to put some distance between them and the ship.

"M&M we need all the power to the shields and the weapons." Faulk ordered, "Naomi find me a way out quick we need to take both those ships out before Korok gets into the nebula."

Naomi tapped on Lucas' shoulder, "Start looking Lucas, we are too far in the make it out of the nebula like the rest of the team. Lets get inventive."

They destroyed the ship heading towards the aperture but the other ship took out their aft shields:

"All power to the weapons but the forward shields. TIME spin us around our butt is unprotected anyway so we might as well go all out. Fire at will once we get around." Faulk ordered as he moved to Naomi's side, "Please tell me you have a plan to get us the hell out of this damn nebula ."

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

The second wave moved into the nebula faster than the first, as the path was cleared. Korok watched the first wave ships as they moved towards the aperture. He noticed the first wave break formation and attacked the nearest targets. Korok decided that Faulk made a good decision to get the attacking ships. It cleared the path for them to move in.

Korok became more confused at Faulk's actions when he moved deeper into the nebula, he tried not to worry about the Captain and the crew members, but it was hard not to. He flipped the buttons that started the irreversible launch sequence for the torpedo shuttle. The torpedo moved towards the aperture as the second wave started fanning back towards the edge of the nebula.

Suddenly another ship moved into the path of the torpedo, Korok yelled, "Turn us back around NOW."

"Sir we can't, we will not make it out of the nebula…" Sophia said but started moving the controls to turn back around.

"Sophia we need…"

"Faulk to Korok turn back around Korok, we have it taken care of." Faulk yelled through the intercom.

"What are you still doing in the nebula Faulk?" 

"We got it… shit Naomi where did that third ship come from? God they just keep coming out! Just get out of here Korok… we will protect the ship."

"Faulk you wont get out of there in time…" but the channel cut out as they crossed the nebula border watching as the torpedo and nebula exploded.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Please review and let me know what you think of the chapter!

Please inspire my muse and let me know if there is anything from the 10 years you specifically want to see! I have a couple more flashbacks in mind and I need more inspiration!

Marla1


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